The Premier League is set to return this month with Arsenal taking on Manchester City in their rescheduled game as one of the first fixtures.
Mikel Arteta’s team remains unbeaten in domestic competitions this year and they would look to maintain that when the league and FA Cup restarts.
However, just as Arsenal is preparing for a fine end of the season, other teams challenging us for a European place are also preparing.
The Gunners have enjoyed some good fortune from the break in the sense that every one of our players who has been out injured, except Calum Chambers is back from injury, but this is true of other teams as well.
Some factors would affect most if not all teams negatively, like a lack of match practice.
However, some factors might affect teams differently like a return of their star players from injuries.
To be fair, Arsenal didn’t suffer from injuries to their top stars before the suspension of the season, but our direct competitors like Manchester United and Tottenham lost important players like Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane.
As the team returns with fully-fit squads, something tells me that we might just have our work cut out for us now.
I do trust Mikel Arteta to get us through this season and possibly win the FA Cup, however, our challenge for a European place via the league just got tougher.
This brings the question of the integrity of the game back into focus, it really is unfair that we will be facing a Tottenham team with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min when they would not have been available for the original date and yet we are not allowed to field William Saliba.
