Arsenal: December fixtures will truly test both depth and resolve

With nine games upcoming this December – seven in the Premier League – Arsenal’s lack of depth across multiple positions will be the most stringent challenge facing new manager Unai Emery.

December is going to test Arsenal’s credentials across the board. Both their depth and their resolve — and every conceivable intangible — is set to undergo the biggest stress-test in modern football: The festive fixtures.

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Striker Alexandre Lacazette reported tightness in his groin after training on Saturday before the Cherries match. While saving him for the North London Derby is the prudent decision, the full extent of the damage is not yet known. After all, he did pull out of France national duty during the recent international break for the exact same reason. Is Lacazette “nursing” an injury? And will playing him exacerbate it? Being a side so short of striking options — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being more a finisher than an out-and-out number nine — you have to think that this injury has come at the worst possible time for the Gunners.

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Left-back mainstay Nacho Monreal has been coping with a right hamstring injury for so long now that it is hard to fathom the true extent of the problem. This situation began in October so innocently. Back in early November, head coach Unai Emery advised Monreal was only being held out because “we are taking precaution.” Yet in the build-up to the Bournemouth encounter, it was announced that he was “not OK.” After missing five league matches (two wins and three draws) and trying everything in the left-back position, including Granit Xhaka, it is now being said that he has suffered a “setback” and will be out for at least another fortnight. That means he may not feature until Arsenal host Huddersfield Town on December 12th, missing critical matches against Spurs and Manchester United.

To further the defensive concerns, Stephan Lichtsteiner is still out with a right hamstring injury. His ailment was touted as being more of a “day-to-day” issue. Emery announced in his Bournemouth pre-match notes that Lichtsteiner was “beginning to train with us.” That rings of a player slowly being reintegrated to first-team duties. But let’s be honest, the Swiss captain literally popped a tire against Sporting CP. He was under no pressure when he went to ground. That is not the sign of a little injury.

These defensive setbacks speak to an unnerving trend. Konstantinos Mavropanos was expected to be in training by November. Now that November has come and virtually gone we hear that he will be back in December. The dates simply keep getting pushed back. Laurent Koscielny was to be available by now. He was actually supposed to start getting integrated back in September. And now, approaching the festive fixtures, the talk is that he will be ready after the new year.

I cannot help but recall the Santi Cazorla situation. Do Arsenal have a problem with their medical staff? Are the Gunners not staffing the best doctors money can buy and are the players and team paying the price as a result?

Sandwiched between facing Spurs at the Emirates on the 2nd and traveling to Anfield on the 29th, Arsenal have seven other games to manage. Of the seven Premier League games in December, four come against bottom-half opposition. Taken one week at a time, all but the most pessimistic of fans would look at these as potential wins. But with games coming a few days apart, fatigue is just as much of an issue as the opposition. Who will play for Hector Bellerin if Lichsteiner is unavailable? Who will cover for Sead Kolasinac? Or are we asking both to play nine games in 27 days?

The December festive fixtures will be a stern test of the Emery era. Both Arsenal’s depth as a team and the resolve of each player individually will be questioned and analyzed from every angle. It may even be the month that we see the first real signs of growing pains. Not because of the games coming thick and fast. The challenge is rotating the squad enough to manage the issue of depth while ensuring the chosen 11 have the resolve and togetherness to dig out results.

With so much experience riding the bench due to injuries that means asking youth to punch above their weight. Hopefully the young Gunners (Emile Smith-Rowe, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Julio Pleguezuelo) can rise to the occasion. They might well have to. Because the Festive Fixtures might just end up defining Arsenal’s season.