Arsenal Start Chain Reaction That’ll See Them Make Football History in 10 Days

Arsenal will begin a historic run of fixtures when they face Portsmouth at Fratton Park in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday (January 11).

Premier League leaders Arsenal visit 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth, aiming to begin their cup campaign with a win.

Arsenal are currently still fighting on four fronts – Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup, and FA Cup – having failed to win a trophy since their 2019/20 FA Cup triumph during Mikel Arteta’s first season in charge of the Gunners.

Since then, the former Everton man has significantly improved Arsenal’s league position, finishing fifth in 2021/22, second in the following three campaigns, and as things stand, the north London club are in the box seat to win the title this term, which would be their first since 2003/04.

• If you want to see even more from SPORTbible, make us a preferred source on Google

Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2019/20 (Credit:Getty)

And due to Arsenal being in all four competitions, the next ten days will see them do something that no other club has before.

Following their trip to Portsmouth on Sunday, they will prepare for the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which is set to take place on Wednesday (January 14).

Three days later, on Saturday (January 17), the Gunners will take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground before travelling to Northern Italy for their penultimate Champions League league phase clash against Serie A side Inter the following Tuesday (January 20).

And having four away fixtures in four different competitions in the space of 10 days is something that no other club has encountered before.

Of course, Arteta does have a deep squad and will likely make changes for the FA Cup tie at Portsmouth as well as the trip to the San Siro due to the side already qualifying for the round of 16 with two games to spare.

Mikel Arteta's side are competing on four fronts (Credit:Getty)

When asked about rotating his squad over the next ten days, during his pre-match press conference ahead of the FA Cup clash, Arteta explained: “But we have to manage [the fixture schedule], obviously, because what is coming again in the next few weeks. I think we have four away games in different competitions, and we have to make sure that everybody is participating, we continue to perform, and win games. And we’re going to have to manage that one.”

Arsenal’s next home match is against Manchester United on January 25.