This Will Be A Footballing Christmas For Me

The Christmas is approaching fast and so are the last matches Arsenal are going to play this season, says Tomáš Rosický in his column. Just like anybody else, he is looking forward to Christmas but, unlike most of us, he still has to think about work, as the Premier League is going to run full blast before the end of the year. The first fixture for Arsenal is one against Tottenham.

“The footballing life in England has not slowed down even now when most European leagues have stopped to make a winter break. That is why the upcoming days are a bit different than what I was used to at home, as well as in Dortmund, where we would always have a holiday. That, however, is not the case at Arsenal. On the contrary, we are about to play a series of difficult games that many believe is crucial in terms of further developments in the League.

That is why my Christmas Eve will be a little different than what I am used to. It's gonna be an ordinary working day for me - I am going to get home as late as four o'clockish after the afternoon practice session. Then, obviously, we will have a festive family dinner, which is a thing I am looking forward to very much, and I don't mind the fact that we simply have to go for some fish other than carp because unlike in Prague, carp does not seem to be available here in London. We will also exchange a few presents – with the upcoming series of matches in mind, I bought them early enough this year, in contrast with my habit of going out shopping at the last possible moment.

Still before Christmas, however, we are playing the first match of that difficult series, a prestigious “battle of North London” against Tottenham, i.e., a game that Arsenal fans consider very special. Moreover, it is already clear that we are going to play them again in the Carling Cup semifinal scheduled for late January. Now we are playing altogether four matches within those ten days that remain till the end of the year, including one against West Ham United on January 1.

We are entering this series of matches in a good mood, though, as the last two games have shown that Arsenal - despite speculation by some experts – are not going through difficult times. We put in a very decent performance against Chelsea - we played as a well-organised team and created quite a few chances besides the goals we scored. Chelsea's performance was not bad, either, but nearly all their shots on goal were long-distance efforts which was not enough this time.

Although the whole starting line-up had a day off on Tuesday for the Carling Cup match against Blackburn, the young guys played well and have shown again how strong our squad is. They quickly took a two-goal lead, and although the opposition side managed to equalise, our guys had enough strength to score a winning goal despite playing one man down.

I believe it wasn't the last goal this year and also that next year will be a very good one for both Arsenal and the Czech Republic team. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!