Arsenal: Christmas is bringing a present for Arsene Wenger

The Christmas period is coming. It is always a crucial time of the season. Thankfully for Arsenal, though, there is a present for Arsene Wenger, and it comes in the form of the fixture list.

Christmas is always a key time of the season. The stop-start nature of the opening stanzas because of the dreaded international breaks often prevent teams from finding the general rhythm of the year. But as November turns to December and Christmas draws near, the fixtures begin to pile up. And almost all of them are domestic, league matches.

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Arsenal’s last European fixture, for example, is on December 7th. The only other game that they have in December that isn’t a Premier League fixture is against West Ham in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. They will play nine games in total, spanning just 28 games.

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From a broader, Premier League spectrum, the first 11 games took 87 days to complete — approximately one game per week. The next 11 games will take just over half that, at 47 days. This is a crucial part of the year.

Thankfully for Arsene Wenger, during the Christmas period, he has been given a rather peculiar gift. Every Premier League team will play four festive fixtures this season — for Arsenal, these are Liverpool (H), Crystal Palace (A), West Bromwich Albion (H), and Chelsea (H). That is one more than last season, where every team was given a week’s rest before their Boxing Day fixture (or the fixture nearest to Boxing Day). This year, Arsenal player Liverpool on December 22nd, just six days and eight days before their next two matches.

And that seems harsh. That’s because it is harsh. But it could be much worse. In fact, of the four festive fixtures, no other team has as many hours spanning between the start and end. There are 290 hours between the Gunners’ four matches. Contrast that to Leicester City, who have just 213 hours between their four matches. That is more than three days less rest. Significant.

Moreover, of the four games played during the period, three of them are at home. Although games against Liverpool and Chelsea are, on paper, more difficult games, they do come at home. Furthermore, the easiest game of the four, the one that would, in an ideal world, be played away from home. That is the case for Wenger’s squad, with a trip to bottom-of-the-league Palace.

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If success is to be enjoyed this Premier League campaign, then it is imperative that the Christmas period is a productive one. Thankfully for Arsenal, they have been given the best possible chance of that. They simply have to take it.