Pivotal December for Arsene’s Men

A naturally congested Christmas fixture list leaves the Gunners with a succession of extremely tough games, in a month that always bears a mark on the destination of the title.

Of the current "Big Four" title challengers,  Arsenal have by far the hardest stretch of games to contend with over the festive season. Sunday sees them up against the resilient Chelsea, followed shortly by a North London derby against a Spurs side, who are improving every game under the tutorship of Spaniard Juande Ramos.

After these tests are two very tough away encounters with Everton and Portsmouth—two sides also riding a wave of improvement, and both with enough ability to upset any team’s title aspirations.

With a host of injuries to key players—in particular, the midfield trio Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb, and Mathieu Flamini—Arsene Wenger saw his team come up considerably short against both Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The Gunners took just one point out of a potential four in the North-East—making Sunday’s derby with Chelsea all the more significant.

These recent results suggest that Wenger cannot necessarily rely on his team’s usual strength in midfield.

Although Lassana Diarra had an outstanding first half in the recent win over Aston Villa, his partnership with the sluggish and laboured Gilberto looked fragile and worryingly susceptible to the more aggressive tactics of Northern opposition.

Arsenal were admittedly poor in both games, and although these failures seem to indicate a return to recent times, all Arsenal fans know that with the return of the combative and creative midfield of Flamini, Fabregas and Hleb, these flaws will no longer be apparent on a consistent basis.

As such, it is no wonder that Wenger is giving these players until the last minute to prove their fitness ahead of Sunday’s crunch-tie with the West Londoners. Even if short of 100 percent, you would suspect that the qualities abundant throughout all three players, as well as the mercurial talent of Robin van Persie, would force Wenger to introduce them at some point in the game.

Arsenal's struggles are indicative of this period in the Premier League last year, when even a team as expensively-assembled as Chelsea struggled in seemingly easier games without the presence of John Terry and Peter Cech. This all just goes to show that regardless of the size of the pool of players to choose from, even the top teams desperately need to have their key players mostly available over the course of a demanding season.

With January and the African Nations Cup in mind, the one area Wenger needs to strengthen most is central defence.

Phillipe Senderos, as good as a player as he was in the run to the Champions League Final of 2006, can at times undermine the composure and resilience instilled in the team this term. When Toure does depart for the tournament in January, Wenger may well feel the need to invest in that area, or bring back the talented Johan Djourou from his loan spell with Birmingham.

Nonetheless, December is a serious test of the Gunner’s true potential. Although it goes without saying that you can’t win the title over the Christmas period, there’s no doubting that you can lose it.