Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said finishing top of the Premier League table at Christmas has reinforced his belief in his team\u2019s title credentials. The side have now led at Christmas in three of the past four seasons, but Arteta suggested this particular moment feels distinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me belief and confidence: the level of performance and the consistency of that,\u201d Arteta reflected. \u201cIt is very difficult to do in this league so it means the team is consistently there. We enjoy the process of winning. We will have to go to difficult places and have difficult moments. We have dealt with a lot of things already and we are there.\u201d<\/p>\n
History offers a mixed signal. The team sitting top at Christmas has gone on to win the title in 17 of the past 33 seasons. Arsenal, however, account for four of those failed title pursuits.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola\u2019s side have tightened the race in recent weeks. A winning run has seen City erase a seven-point deficit to reduce the gap to just two points heading into the holidays. Guardiola recently warned Arteta that City were \u201cgetting better\u201d after an admittedly slow start to the campaign. The ominous sight of the Etihad outfit bearing down on them is nothing new to Arsenal, but Arteta stressed his team will focus inward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not looking at [City],\u201d Arteta insisted. \u201cI know you guys do. The only thing we can control is our own performance and results and we know how long it\u2019s going to be and how tough this league is. That\u2019s it. Enjoy every day. Do your best and see what we\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta\u2019s message is clear: the Christmas summit provides confidence, but the challenge ahead remains significant. Arsenal will attempt to convert festive optimism into sustained form as the season progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta says leading at Christmas has bolstered belief as Arsenal face City’s late run into 2026 this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1162],"class_list":["post-5275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}