Arsenal play Burnley, Brighton, Liverpool and Fulham across the Christmas period. Three wins would be a good return. Consequently, points in the bag are a necessity when they travel to the south coast to play Brighton on Boxing Day.
The festive period is unique to English football. There is nothing like it in the rest of the world.
The ferocity of the matches, the frequency of the game, the physical and mental demands on the players and the coaches. Speak to any player or manager who has not grown up in English football and they will tell you how difficult it was adapting to the Christmas fixtures.
The relentless nature of the games at this time of year make it extremely challenging for managers to navigate their teams through this utterly special and particular period of the season. But the regularity of the matches also offers great opportunity.
In the space of 11 days, Arsenal play four games: Burnley at home, which they won 3-1; on the road at Brighton and Hove Albion on Boxing Day; a trip to Anfield and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool just three days later; a home match against Fulham on New Year’s Day to close out the run. That is more than 10% of the season played in less than two weeks. The chance to hit form and pick up points is plentiful.
And of those four matches, only one is a troubling prospect, a somewhat horrifying match at Liverpool, the unbeaten Liverpool who sit at the top of the table at Christmas — incidentally, in the past ten years, eight of the ten teams that are first at Christmas have won the league. The only two were Liverpool in 2008/09 and Liverpool again in 2013/14. Liverpool might be the best team in the country, and they are formidable at home, winning seven of their eight matches at Anfield, drawing the other.
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