The 2025/26 Premier League fixtures are out - and Arsenal fans have plenty to complain about.
For the most part, coverage of the release of the 2025/26 Premier League fixtures will focus on the teams that get the easiest or toughest starts and perhaps look at their run-ins, while for fans it’s mostly about marking derby days up on their calendars – but a deeper dive into the schedule suggests that the battle for the title could hinge on the games in the middle of the campaign.
While the challenges that contenders face at the start and end of the season, the Christmas and New Year’s schedule is, perhaps, more influential still. After all, it’s the toughest time of the entire year, when the games come thick and fast and congestion takes its toll on players’ legs. And this year, the festive schedule looks especially brutal for Arsenal.
Why the fixture list makes life much harder for Arsenal
Premier League sides are set to play four matches in the space of two weeks between Boxing Day and the middle of the first full week of January this year, an energy-sapping stretch of matches which will have an out-sized influence on the course of the campaign.
While the official fixtures list the traditional slate of post-Christmas Day matches as being on the 27 December – a pretty significant break from tradition – it’s been clarified that some games will be played on Boxing Day itself once live TV matches are decided. Either way, it’s a tough period for the players.
And Arsenal haven’t got it easy. Over the course of that four-game stretch, they’re set to play Brighton & Hove Albion (home), Aston Villa (home), Bournemouth (away) and then Liverpool (home) – three conceivable European contenders, followed by the reigning champions in a match which could easily determine the final destination of the league title.
It’s possible that Brighton or Villa are a little weaker next season, and it’s very hard to predict how good Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth will be after the likely departure of several key players, but on paper it’s one of the toughest run of games any team will face over that period. There isn’t a game against a newly-promoted side in which a few legs might reasonably be rested.
Compare and contrast Arsenal’s run of matches over Christmas with Liverpool’s. The title holders are up against Wolves and Leeds United and then travel to Fulham before the potentially decisive showdown at the Emirates. Even if Wolves maintain their late season form into next year without Matheus Cunha and Fulham remain a solid side, that’s certainly likely to be a slightly gentler run of games.
Manchester City, for their part, do face Chelsea and Nottingham Forest, which could be a tough game if Nuno Espirito Santo can maintain momentum for the last year, but get Brighton at home rather than away and also travel to Sunderland. Chelsea, for their part, have a similar run to Arsenal, facing Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Fulham alongside City. Newcastle perhaps have it the easiest of the notional title contenders - Manchester United, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Leeds.
On average, assuming the various teams involved are broadly as good or as bad as they were last season (an assumption that may prove deeply foolish come December) it’s probably fair to say that Arsenal have the most difficult run of games in that period, playing entirely against high-intensity teams with no ‘softer’ game to make life easier before that big game against Liverpool.
Chelsea fans can complain too, of course, but they were further away from looking like serious title contenders than Arsenal were last season, and it’s Mikel Arteta under the greatest pressure to deliver a league championship which keeps eluding his side. They are in danger of seeing a very strong team stuck as bridesmaids, and this year’s fixtures won’t make it much easier.
Why Arsenal still have hope ahead of a tough run
There are two major advantages that Arsenal will enjoy this winter, even if few fans would pick their set of games given the choice – and the first is that they won’t have to do too much travelling.
Three of those four matches over the festive period are home games, and the one away trip they have to make, to the Vitality Stadium, isn’t especially onerous. Liverpool, meanwhile, have to make their way down to the capital twice. A little tougher on the tiredness, perhaps.
But the bigger edge that Arsenal will have over their potential title rivals is that the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts on 21 December this year, won’t cause them any problems. The only current African international in Arsenal’s squad right now is Thomas Partey, and Ghana failed to make the finals of AFCON 2025 after a humiliating qualification campaign. Liverpool, meanwhile, will lose Mohamed Salah for up to a month in the middle of the most crucial run of games they might face.
Manchester City will likely lose Omar Marmoush and Rayan Aït-Nouri, while Chelsea may have to do without Nicolas Jackson, which will at least be less problematic after the signing of Liam Delap.
Certainly, losing Salah will hit Liverpool hard, and for Arsenal, playing them at a time when they may well be without the Egyptian (assuming his country make it past the group stage) is a significant edge that could help to balance out the challenges they face in the fixture list.
It’s worth recalling that Arsenal have lost the title over the winter before. In the 2023/24 season, it was seasonal defeats to West Ham and Fulham that derailed their attempt to overhaul Manchester City. They came through the winter unscathed this last year, only dropping points to Brighton, but the importance of performances across the festive fixtures won’t be lost on Arteta.
Arsenal have seemed to be within touching distance of a first title in two decades for a while now – and to get over the line, navigating the Christmas and New Year period without dropping points may prove vital. Unfortunately, doing so will be far from easy.
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