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Arsenal face crucial festive period to get themselves back in title hunt

By mac14 on December 9, 2024

Arsenal have no more room for error in the title race as we head into a crucial run of games over the Christmas and New Year period.

After Liverpool’s Merseyside Derby against Everton at Goodison Park was called off due to adverse weather conditions, Arsenal had the perfect opportunity to close the gap and put some real pressure on the Premier League leaders. We headed to Craven Cottage on Saturday evening looking to avenge last seasons defeat and knowing victory would cut Liverpool’s advantage to just four points.

Arsenal dominated the early stages of the game but were hit by a sucker punch in the 10th minute as Fulham’s first attack led to Raul Jiminez firing into the bottom corner after some poor defending from Jacub Kiwior. We responded reasonably well and levelled things up just after half-time when William Saliba poked home from close range following a 51st minute corner.

We had over 40 minutes to find a crucial winner and completely dominated the rest of the game but struggled to create clear cut chances. Thomas Partey had the best opportunity – from another set piece – as he somehow headed wide when unmarked at the back post. Arsenal thought they had found a deserved winner in the 89th minute when Bukayo Saka headed home from a Gabriel Martinelli cross – however, the goal was ruled out as Martinelli had strayed just offside in the build-up.

We couldn’t find a second goal in stoppage time so had to settle for a 1-1 draw. Most away games in the Premier League are tough, but this was very much two points dropped by Arsenal, especially considering how dominant we were. Fulham barely had a sniff except for their goal and we really should have converted our superiority into three points against our London rivals.

With Man City dropping points earlier in the day and Liverpool not playing, this was a huge opportunity missed by Arsenal. Mikel Arteta was ‘gutted’ after the game and said we deserved to win. I agree, but we also didn’t create enough clear cut chances to put the game to bed. We left ourselves vulnerable for the fine margins not to go our way by being too conservative in attack. Fulham were there for the taking but we produced another toothless performance from open play and we’ve only got ourselves to blame for dropping another two vital points.

Arsenal now trail Liverpool by six points with the Reds holding a game in hand, so we really can’t afford any more slip ups if we want to win the title. The good news is we now have a favourable run of games over the festive period where we can hopefully close the gap on the league leaders.

Opportunity

After hosting Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday night, Arsenal then welcome Everton to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Toffees are enduring another difficult campaign and sat in the drop zone for much of the season. They dragged themselves out of the bottom three and up to 15th with an impressive 4-0 win over Wolves last time out and were hoping to cause an upset against Liverpool before that game was postponed.

Everton will be well rested when they head to North London at the weekend but Arsenal will be strong favourites to beat them on home soil. Arteta may also eye this game as a chance to improve our goal difference with a comfortable victory but the most important thing is securing all three points.

We then take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park just three days after meeting in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup. It is never easy to play away to Palace as their home support always make it an intimidating atmosphere, so this will be a tough game. Supporters with Crystal Palace vs Arsenal tickets will be expecting an entertaining match and we know the Eagles have the quality to cause us plenty of problems.

Palace just held Man City to a 2-2 draw at home, so that should serve as a warning to Arteta and his squad that they cannot be underestimated despite the fact they sit 17th in the table. With the likes of Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eberechi Eze in their team, Palace are a dangerous outfit but Arsenal will still be quietly confident of taking all three points back to North London on December 21st.

Shortly after Christmas, Arsenal will host Ipswich Town on December 27th and nothing less than a comfortable win will do. If we want to be challenging for the title, we have to beat the newly promoted teams and we should have no problems scoring a few past Ipswich at home. They sit in the bottom three after winning just 1 games from 15 attempts so far this season so Arsenal should be looking to rack up a decent win in their final game of 2024.

Tough start to 2025

On New Year’s Day, Arsenal face a tricky trip to the Gtech Community Stadium to face Brentford. The Bees are doing well this season and sit ninth in the table after a 4-2 win over Newcastle at the weekend. Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa are both excellent attackers that Arsenal will have to keep quiet if we want to win this game.

However, we have more than enough quality to get three points at the Gtech and Arteta knows this is the sort of fixture we need to win if we’re to catch Liverpool over the coming weeks.

On paper, Arsenal have a decent schedule over the festive period – especially as we won’t leave London during this busy time – so we should be targeting maximum points. Liverpool face a tough trip to Tottenham and an away game against West Ham over the same four game period, as well as home games against Fulham and Leicester, so hopefully they’ll drop some points and we can close the gap.

One thing is sure, Arsenal cannot afford any more slip-ups over the next 4-5 games if we want to stand a chance of catching the run-away Premier League leaders and keeping ourselves in the title hunt. Key to this is regaining our form in attack, getting our injured players back and keeping key men fit. We’re down to the bare bones in defence with five defenders on the sidelines, so hopefully Arteta can get a few of them back in time to face Everton on Saturday.