November was a pretty poor month for our boys! Will December be any better?
As our lead up to the winter period is normally a mix bag of results, 2020’S lead up to the Christmas winter period is one of our worst in a long long time. So will it be a case that December onwards for once will be a good period for our boys! Well we certainly hope so!
The Christmas period normally brings around injuries, poor results and then by the time we reach February we are pretty much out of all competitions and looking to chase that top four or five position in league. But despite the poor form we have been going through recently, maybe more optimistically than I should be giving the boys credit for, but I do have hope that things will get better. Every team has a bad run and November was our time!
Arteta came in, took over and although we finished in our lowest position in over 25 years in his first half season in charge it all became a bit of a rollercoaster, despite finishing in eighth place in the 2019/20 season, he then went on to lead the boys to an FA Cup and Community Shield final win over Chelsea and Liverpool. At that point things were positive going into the new season, but our boys soon came back down to earth with a bang and reality kicked in that the work was far from over!
We know we had some lucky results in the league beating Sheffield and West Ham, but our luck soon ran out, losing to Aston Villa, Leicester and Wolves, who really were the better teams on the day. It was all well and good beating the big teams and not conceding many goals, but there no longer is a balance in the team and there no longer is any joy in watching the beautiful game of our club!
The playing and passing identity has clearly been lost and although we have become more defence we are still conceding and now losing games, so Arteta needs to quickly look back and realise not everything is about defending and being solid.
The players have lost their spark and fluid playing style and it quickly needs to be brought back if we are to have a decent winter period moving forward for the rest of the season!
Here are December’s fixtures….
| 03/12/20 | UEL | Arsenal | 21 : 00 | Rapid Wien | |
| 06/12/20 | PRL | Tottenham Hotspur | 17 : 30 | Arsenal | |
| 10/12/20 | UEL | Dundalk | 18 : 55 | Arsenal | |
| 13/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 20 : 15 | Burnley | |
| 16/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 19 : 00 | Southampton | |
| 19/12/20 | PRL | Everton | 18 : 30 | Arsenal | |
| 22/12/20 | LEC | Arsenal | 21 : 00 | Manchester City | |
| 26/12/20 | PRL | Arsenal | 18 : 30 | Chelsea | |
| 29/12/20 | PRL | Brighton & Hove Albion | 19 : 00 | Arsenal |
Do you think we can turn things around in December?
Shenel Osman