Morning all, hope we’re all good?

It’s back down to normality for me today following just under three week’s on the other side of the world on holiday in New Zealand and although I’ve been quiet on here and quite quiet on social media, I’ve managed to watch almost all of Arsenal’s football, as well as keeping up with some of the stuff from the guys on the Same Old Arsenal pod so it’s been – from an Arsenal perspective – quite good to keep myself connected on the going’s on of the last few weeks.

And I’ve got to say I’ve liked what has been served to us so far. We have been missing a few key players at times, but most are now returning back after the international break and what we’ve been treated to is a real mix bag of performances, but results have been consistently impressive. The Brentford game was one is which we really did grit out a victory at a tough place to go, then we got an absolute smashing under our belts with the 6-0 Lens game to secure Champions League, which was then followed up by Saturday’s impressive win at home to Wolves, albeit that felt like a halfway house between Brentford and Lens. We dominated the game, should have scored more, but ultimately got the three points and after City and the Scum drew yesterday, it puts us three points clear at the top of the table. Lovely stuff.

But December will be a real litmus test for this Arsenal side and you can see why Paul Merson thinks that this side could go on to win the title if they win the remaining games between now and Christmas Day. I can see his point there because the news four games are not all winnable ones and if we win every single one then we’ll have played 18 games, be nearly at the halfway stage in the season and I suspect be more than two points clear at the top of the league. That’s because it would include a victory at Anfield and as Liverpool are currently two points away from us, we’d be a minimum of five away from them and given City have dropped points already this season, we might be a few more than three points clear of them too.

I personally don’t think it’ll happen though (we win all four games) and when you look at Liverpool’s home record at the moment, they’ve played seven and won seven at home, conceding just five in total (and three of those were yesterday against Fulham). We play Luton tomorrow and I’ll do a match preview then specifically on that game, but it’s one you’d expect to win, but next weekend it is Aston Villa at home and Villa also have a flawless home record so far, having beaten six teams out of six and in the process having scored the most goals at home all season, whilst conceding the joint least on five. Then we’ve got Brighton at home wedged in between Villa and Liverpool away and we all know that this Brighton team are very capable of beating us and did so even as recently as last season when we were in crunch time for the league title. So whilst Merson’s initial statement of us potentially going on to win it feels a bit of a bold prediction, if you’re looking at it in the cold light of day and the obstacles we have in front of us before Christmas Day, it doesn’t feel that bold at all.

This season we’ve beaten Man City at home already, we would have beaten the Scum had it not have been for injuries and a brain-fart Jorginho moment, we got shafted at Newcastle by refereeing standards in the gutter, as well as dropping points at home to Fulham who can probably consider themselves very lucky to have got anything from that game. All this is against the backdrop of an Arsenal side not really ‘clicking’ yet, as the media as been quick to point out and as we’ve also been saying is a reality of this season. So we’re in good shape and if the Wolves performance is an indication that the team is starting to evolve in an attacking capacity, then we have the hope that this season could be another good one when we get to May.

I don’t know about you though, but I am still harbouring the same kind of “we probably won’t win it though” thoughts that I had last season. Most Arsenal fans last season were the same as me re: a possibility to win the title and most of us were keeping our feet on the ground; it was the media that hyped us up so they could shoot us down. This season we are looked at a little differently by the media and the performances we’ve had have been part of the cliched narrative of “you have to win ugly” by the online and offline press, but most Arsenal fans I speak to are as reticent as me to start feeling overly bullish about winning the league. But if we win the next four and fins clear daylight between us and the rest of the league come Christmas Day, I do think there will be a few in the fanbase that will start to be a lot more upbeat about our chances.

As for me, I will keep more positive powder keg dry for longer than that; we’ll still need to go away to City, the Scum and Man United in the new year and those are always difficult places to go. United may be a bit of a shambles right now, but that won’t last forever and we don’t play them until well in to 2024, by which time I’m expecting them to have steadied their proverbial ship and Old Trafford will once again be a place that we will find hard to get anything from.

I’m going to wrap up for today, as I need to get cracking with work and remembering what I do for a living, but before I do that, a quick shout out for the FA Cup draw, in which we’ve been handed almost the most difficult tie you could expect at that stage, with Liverpool at home visiting us at the beginning on January. It’s a bit of a kicker because it most likely means very little rotation for Arteta, whilst United get a game against Wigan, City get a banker at home to Huddersfield, Chelsea have Preston and the Scum get a tricky but winnable game away to Burnley. Can’t say we’ve had the easiest of breaks in that regard but if we can overcome it then it’s one of the favourites we’ll have knocked out, so that’s something.

So on that note I’ll say my goodbyes for today and catch you all tomorrow.