I have spent most of the day going through the Premier League fixture list and the one thing I cannot get away from is that fact that Arsenal will be playing Tottenham and Liverpool back to back twice and not just at any time but in the first six games and the last six games, I mean what the hell.
I did cover this a little in an earlier article where I said that the fixture list was manageable and put a confident spin on it but the more I have analysed the fixtures and the way they are set out the less confident I have become,
That said, I am not taking a negative view here, I still actually think we will beat Spurs at the Emirates but even so, two huge games at two critical moments in the season.
A bad start and we could be playing catch up all season long and if we are in contention for top-four or dare I say, the title, then having to play those two in our run in is just not cricket.
You see, the thing is this, one has to be realistic, this is not the best Arsenal team we have seen for a long time, we have hardly any money to spend and it could be a difficult season for us. We know Tottenham will spend big and that Liverpool are a fantastic team and the truth is that if we do not pull off some significant transfer business we could take a bit of a beating against both those teams.
Look what happened last season, Chelsea and Man City at the start, we lost both and we never really recovered and that could easily happen again this season.
And then you can add in Chelsea and Man Utd back to back over the new year period, I mean, come on, spread it out a bit better.
Obviously, there could be an upside, win one game and momentum could easily carry over but not sure with this Arsenal side, not sure at all.
My main issue is how they are clustered together, it would have been far better for us if they were spread out over the season and while some will argue that you have to play every team twice anyway it is not as simple as that, momentum and confidence drive teams on and if you get either damaged at critical moments then it becomes harder, much harder.
Games against the top six that are spread out give you an opportunity to bounce back quicker against lesser teams in the event of a defeat against a big rival, that is not so easy to do when you face the big sides back to back.
Anyway, that is my mini moan over with, maybe it is just me and I am seeing something that is not there but I will admit, on further analysis, I am not as confident this evening as I was earlier in the day.