Story byMikel Arteta has guided Arsenal to a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League. []Dale Johnson - Football issues correspondentThu, December 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM UTC·7 min readMikel Arteta is not happy with Arsenal's festive fixture list - does his complaint have some merit?After the Gunners played Brentford on Wednesday evening, they must travel to Aston Villa on Saturday for a 12:30 GMT kick-off. It is a really quick turnaround. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementArteta believes the Villa fixture should have been scheduled for Sunday to provide additional rest. Unfortunately for Arteta, only teams who are away in Europe on a Wednesday night can opt out of that Saturday lunchtime TV slot, so his complaints will fall on deaf ears. December is notoriously busy for Premier League clubs, with a midweek round of matches, the festive programme, European fixtures and the Carabo Cup quarter-finals. So who has the most arduous run of fixtures in the five-week period through to the first weekend of January?1.