It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Or is it? I don’t know, we’ll see, after the nine matches we have this December are all out of the way

Can you believe it? NINE!

Personally, I think this means we’ll change our opinion about Arsene Wenger and football at least 18 times this month.

Oh joy!

1. So, who do we have this month?

It starts with a bang – Mourinho at home on 2 December.

The last time we played them at home, I was there and we won – it was fantastic. This time, I just don’t know what will happen.

Mourinho loves to park the bus away to top six teams (which we are, unlike Spurs), so that’s a real possibility.

We have a fantastic record at home, and we’ve kept six clean sheets with the Kos-Musti-Nacho back three, so you could say Arsenal will be okay.

But, then again, we are The Arsenal.

After United, we have one last Europa League group match to get through with the kids. It’s BATE at home, with the C team, on a cold Thursday night, most likely to get a run out. Pretty much everyone expects the lowest attendance ever at the Emirates, and a win, of course.

Next, we have three league matches in a row.

First, we’re off to Southampton and I’m not sure what to think about that. They haven’t been that special this season, but we haven’t been that good away from home either. Hopefully we’ll be on a high after a positive result against United and get at least a point there.

After Southampton, we have a midweek trip to the Olympic Stadium and the woeful Hammers. I would mention the fact that Arsenal love to give struggling teams a hand up, but West Ham are too bad even for that. Anything but three points there is a failure. We play them again just week later in Carabao Cup – and it should be the same – anything but a win would be awful.

Between the two West Ham matches, we host Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle. They have been decent this season, with a mixed-bag of results, but, again, considering our form at home, they shouldn’t be an issue.

After a long, ridiculous debate, the Liverpool match won’t be played on Christmas Eve but two days earlier on 22nd. Again, we’re at home, on a good run, with good record and need  payback for the first match against Liverpool this season. A nice win would be fantastic but I’d take a point as well.

The last two matches are against two teams  I’d typically say “bah, we’re gonna f**k it up, aren’t we?!”

Palace and West Brom, both away and both with new managers who will have settled in completely by then.

But, we already messed up some silly matches this season so I’m thinking at least four points from these two.

And that’s it, happy new year, and we’re hopefully still in the top four when 2018 arrives.

As we continue highlighting former players who didn’t get that much attention during their playing days, the star of this month’s wallpaper is Lauren. Hope you like it!

As always, find the size you want, right-click to save, and let us see it in use @DailyCannon

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