The jury is still out with regard to Arsenal winning the Premier League title this season.
Despite leading the way - effectively since matchday one - many pundits and rival supporters alike still expect Manchester City to be too strong for the Gunners eventually as Pep Guardiola's side remain favourites to lift English football's biggest prize for a third straight campaign.
For Arsenal to be in with a chance of upsetting the odds, they'll most likely need to aim for around 90 points. Ironically, the last time the north London outfit reached that total in the Premier League was 18 years ago - when they were last crowned champions of England after completing an Invincible season.
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With that said, the first step towards winning the Premier League title for the first time since the 2003/04 campaign is to be top of the table at Christmas. This is because the team that has been number one on December 25 has gone on to lift the trophy in 10 of the last 13 seasons.
Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest on Sunday to reclaim top spot from Man City who temporarily led the way after beating Leicester City around 24 hours earlier thanks to a stunning Kevin De Bruyne free-kick. But for this to be the order before the season pauses for the World Cup, ideally Mikel Arteta's side must beat Chelsea and Wolves.
However, there's another omen that could be fantastic news for the Gunners as following the thrashing of Forest at the Emirates Stadium, they have now accrued 31 points after 12 games. Interestingly, as spotted on Reddit, Chelsea and Manchester United (x2) have gone on to finish first after identical starts.
Could this be a sign of things to come for Arsenal? Well, Arteta, the players, coaching staff and all connected to the club will be hoping so as the club's impressive start to the 2022/23 season has gone down as one of the best ever in Premier League history.
It should also be pointed out that Newcastle are the only team in the aforementioned list to have accumulated at least 31 points and not gone on to win the title, the Gunners would have to avoid a repeat if they are to emulate Man United and Chelsea.
Although, there is one small problem in that Man City and Liverpool have raised the level. The pair are joint-first with 34 points after 12 games played with the former going on to win the title twice in 2011/12 and 2017/18 whilst this blistering start laid the foundation for the latter to clinch their first league title success in 30 years when they were crowned champions in 2019/20.
So whilst Arsenal have made a great start to the season, it still might not be enough to end their long 18-year wait to lift the Premier League again and that's through no fault of their own as there just happens to be two other teams in the division that have set new demands in terms of consistency.
Arteta did make this point following his side's win over Liverpool earlier in the month: "Manchester City and Liverpool are really strong," he said when asked if the Gunners are ready to mount a Premier League title challenge. "They've shown that for five years and we haven't done any of that."
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