Arsenal players CANCEL Christmas Party as they knuckle down in bid to get Premier League title race back on track against West Brom
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ARSENAL'S players have CANCELLED their Christmas party in a bid to get their Premier League title charge back on track.
The Gunners stars were due to go out in fancy dress for a night out around London, according to .
But they have seen common sense and understood what a bad idea it would be to be having a night out on the lash when their team is losing games.
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And Arsenal have had two painful defeats on the spin where they have lost a single-goal lead after going ahead, only to leave Everton and Manchester City empty handed.
According to reports, Petr Cech and Per Mertesacker were concerned about the message it would send to the supporters with players bound to be snapped on social media wearing fancy dress.
A handful of players still went for a meal, but they toned down the fancy dress and kept it low key.
Arsene Wenger usually gives his blessing for the players to go out and act responsibly, but with a nine-point deficit to Chelsea at the top of the table, alarm bells were ringing louder than jingle bells.
Nobody can accuse Arsenal's players of not getting stuck into their festive duties though, visiting fans at Whittington Hospital while Alexis Sanchez got involved in a selfie with dozens of buzzing young fans.
Wenger said his players would do some training on Christmas Day afternoon before heading to the Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf for dinner and a rest ahead of the 3pm kick off on Monday.
Wenger did question the layout of Arsenal's fixtures though.
He told the media: "It's a bit surprising this year. I don't completely understand the logic of the organisation of the fixtures this year, because after we played European Cup, two games, three games a week.
"This week we have eight days without a game. After some teams play on the 26th on the 1st.
"We have again a complete week over Christmas which is unusual and suddenly we play the 1st and the 3rd, 48 hours later.
"I don't know if it's television that decided that, I don't know if it's the Premier League, it's completely unusual fixtures and it looks less congested than it was before."