Arsenal's 2-0 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening meant the Gunners will lead the way in the Premier League on Christmas Day for the first time since 2007. If they weren't already strong contenders for the league title, they certainly are now.
The win in the West Midlands topped off what had already been a memorable day for the club after Manchester City's surprise 2-1 home defeat to Brentford. Ivan Toney recovered from his World Cup squad exclusion with a double at the Etihad to hand Pep Guardiola's side their second defeat of the season.
Mikel Arteta will now enjoy a short break away from the intense schedule that has just passed before taking his non-World Cup stars to Dubai for a warm weather training camp. The Gunners return to action on Boxing Day - at home to West Ham - before facing Newcastle, Tottenham and Manchester United in January.
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Spirit is high within the club and fanbase, with the Premier League trophy returning to N7 for the first time since 2004 almost highly likely to be one many Arsenal supporters' Christmas list this year. Many have been quick to dismiss Arteta's men of taking City all the way, with the Citizens squad depth highlighted as one of their strongest advantages to Arsenal.
However, Brentford's performance in Manchester yesterday showed the rest of the league how to best keep goal machine Erling Haaland quiet. The 22-year-old has 18 league goals to his name after only 13 games and could very well make the difference at the end of the season.
But Gunners favourite Ian Wright has laid out what the rest of the Premier League can do to keep the Norwegian quiet to help his former side to glory in May. When asked how Brentford kept Haaland quiet, he said on BBC Match of the Day: "They did very well.
"It was like they had a plan for the front men and the back. They kept Kevin De Bruyne very quiet and you could see that [Mathias[ Jorgensen, Ben Mee and [Ethan] Pinnock were all over him [Haaland] when he was in the box.
"On the very few times that De Bruyne got out of Mathias Jensen's vice-like grip, they just couldn't get it going. With all the bodies in and around him, they were stopping the ball at source.
"They completely deserved it (the victory) because they had a game plan."
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