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Gunners are throwing a title party while rivals misplace the invite
Cape Times
|January 07, 2026
WERE at the halfway point of the English Premier League season and the only wobble coming from league leaders Arsenal is in the leftover jelly from one festive meal too many.
This was usually the month where promise faded and rivals smelt blood — and the ill-fitting bridesmaids’ dresses were hauled out of cupboards once more.
This season, it’s been the opposite.
Arsenal have navigated the festive season chaos with control, consistency and just the right amount of swagger. They're not steamrolling everyone — the statement thrashing of Aston Villa aside ~ but they’re doing what champions do . winning when it matters, finding solutions when problems appear, and letting others self-destruct.
And self-destruct they have.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, the perennial yardstick, have looked human. Injuries have bitten, they've lost their rhythm and dropped points have turned the title race from a procession into a pursuit.
This story is from the January 07, 2026 edition of Cape Times.
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