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Arsenal legend Paul Merson thinks the Gunners will “know by December 13th” whether they will retain their Premier League crown.

Mikel Arteta’s men face a tough run of fixtures, but Merson believes that if they can come through them relatively unscathed, they should finish the season in top spot:

“What a November Arsenal have, by the way. They’ve got a hard month, including the start of December.”

“You’ll know by December 13th if Arsenal will win the Premier League. Because there’s a saying: after the hard games, come the easy games.”

Who will Arsenal face in the Premier League in the next 6 weeks?

Arteta’s side have seven Premier League games to play; four of them are away from home.

They take on Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, before hosting Hull City at the Emirates in their last fixture before the international break.

Following the resumption of club football in late November, the Gunners travel to Newcastle and then play title rivals Manchester City at home.

At the beginning of December, they have a tough away trip to Brentford prior to the first North London derby of this season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. They host Bournemouth on December 13th to close out a testing run of matches.

Arsenal are backed to retain the title

Even before this challenging period of fixtures, statisticians at Opta are tipping the reigning champions to end the campaign in first place, with their title chances rated at 57.65%. Despite currently being level on points with them, rivals Manchester City are only given a probability of 31.05%.

Of course, as Merson points out, a lot could change between now and mid-December, and they will likely have to do it without key player Bukayo Saka too, who could be unavailable for a significant period.