Well Merry Christmas to one and all.

It’s been a mixed bag this season for Arsenal but disappointingly a number of poor performances when it really mattered like losing 3-1 to Man City and Man Utd and to Liverpool 4-0 early in the season.

However they were able to hold Chelsea to a 0-0 draw while they surprised a few when they made Spurs look very much 2nd best in beating their North London rivals in the Derby 2-0 in a game where the Gunners were dominant.

Arsenal currently sit in 6th in the table with 34 points where at this time last season they were 3rd in the table with 40 points.

In the Europa League the Gunners finished top of their group but did lose to Cologne away 1-0. Wilshere had been playing the Europa League and the the Carabao Cup but has broken into the Premier League XI for the past few games as his improved strength plus regaining confidence and composure have him looking pretty good right now.

Ozil has been the surprise of the last 5-7 games as the German star has been showing not only his glorious attacking playing but a really good attitude and a willingness to win the ball back and track back to help his defenders.

He has played with a tenacity that we had rarely seen from him but playing as he is right now Arsenal would certainly be wanting to do what it takes to resign him.

A mix of youngsters and players on the edge of the Premier League squad have played in the Carabao Cup and have played well as the team play Chelsea in the semi-finals.

Arsenal play Crystal Palace away next on the 28th of December where Roy Hodgson has Palace playing massively improved football as they have moved out of the relegation places with an 8 game unbeaten run and they drew with Swansea City 1-1 in their most recent fixture.

Hodgson’s Palace side have looked more solid and have been scoring some goals which was their problem early on before he became the boss.

Arsenal go into the Palace game having played last Friday where they came back from 2-0 down and led 3-2 vs Liverpool but they could not hold on for the win ultimately drawing 3-3.

So in summary Arsenal need to be:

• very proactive in the January transfer window
• massively improved in the 2nd half of the season – to hopefully finish in the top 4 of the Premier League
• winning the Europa League
• aggressive in ending the Alexis Sanchez saga and selling him
• very serious about signing Thomas Lemar
• paying the salary it takes to achieve resigning Mesut Ozil to a new deal.