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Arsenal have the chance to open up a big gap at the top of the Premier League over Aston Villa and Manchester City given their respective fixture schedules
Arsenal have a favourable fixture schedule for the next few weeks over Premier League title rivals Manchester City and Aston Villa. The Gunners sit top of the table on 39 points with City and Villa two and three points behind, respectively, after all three sides won this past weekend.
A Viktor Gyokeres penalty got Arsenal back to winning ways on their travels with that victory against Everton coming between Erling Haaland and Morgan Rogers' braces. The latter's form has seemingly dragged Unai Emery's side into a title race while Haaland's 19 Premier League goals have helped City rediscover their best form.
Though the 2025/26 season is not even halfway complete, the coming weeks could prove crucial to the final outcome with four games to be played over the next two weeks.
Arsenal host Brighton and Aston Villa before 2025 concludes, but they must first navigate a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace. Mikel Arteta's side later make the trip to Bournemouth before returning to north London where Liverpool are the visitors.
Obviously, Villa are due to face Arsenal away from home after playing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a few days earlier. Villa host Nottingham Forest prior to going back on the road for a trip to Crystal Palace, who they have not beaten in their last six attempts.
City, meanwhile, close out the year away to Forest and Sunderland before welcoming Chelsea and Brighton to Etihad Stadium.
All three teams have challenging schedules on paper, but Arsenal's advantage comes with the spacing between their fixtures and the distance they will need to cover. Including the Palace cup tie, four of Arsenal's next five matches are in London.
That should serve as a boost, considering City have two away games in the upcoming busy period while Villa have three. As for rest, there is a swift three-day turnaround between Brighton and Villa for Arsenal, but they have four days between facing the latter and Bournemouth.
The final match of the busy schedule is at home to Liverpool, with a five-day gap coming before that. Villa, meanwhile, have a maximum four-day break with their only home game over this spell being the 12:30 kick-off on Saturday.
As for City, they will have to play three games in the first seven days of 2026, but at least have a five-day break between trips to Forest and Sunderland either side of the year.
Guardiola has rotated heavily this season when forced to contend with only two days of rest and recovery between matches. That could see the likes of Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and even Erling Haaland come out of the team.
Villa are on a staggering 10-game winning streak, but their title credentials will be tested significantly over the next two weeks, given they face Arsenal, Chelsea and Palace away from home.
City will have to be at their very best to get maximum points at the Stadium of Light on New Year's Day, with Sunderland yet to lose on home soil this season, though they will be without several key players because of AFCON.
With Arsenal, 12 points from the four games is more than achievable given their home form and Bournemouth's struggles as of late.
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