Liverpool concluded a round of games top of the Premier League table for the first time since the autumn of 2021, after beating Crystal Palace 2-1 last weekend and Arsenal losing 1-0 to Aston Villa later that day. They are suddenly two wins away from the glory, or curse, as some supporters call it, of being the best at Christmas.

Liverpool will face Arsenal three times in the next six weeks.

In 15 of the 31 Premier title campaigns to date, or slightly less than half, the team in first place at the halfway point has gone on to win the title. It has, coincidentally or not, become increasingly common recently, occurring in ten of the last fifteen seasons.

Until last year, Liverpool had been responsible for the last four Christmas table-toppers failing to win the league: 2008/09, 2013/14, 2018/19, and 2020/21. It was the only side to suffer the humiliation from 2003 and 2021, but Arsenal failed to cling on last year. In the Gunners’ defense, the 2022 World Cup break brought Christmas significantly sooner in the Premier League season.

Before the 25th, there are two big Premier League games (plus a Carabao Cup quarterfinal versus West Ham the following week). The first is a game with archrival Manchester United on Sunday, and the second is a mouth-watering clash with fellow title contender Arsenal on December 23, also at Anfield.

If Liverpool takes advantage of their home advantage that day, Mikel Arteta’s team will have the opportunity to exact revenge just 15 days later when they play Liverpool in the FA Cup third round. The two sides will then meet in the Premier League for the rematch within a month of that encounter. They will clash three times in six weeks, which is unusual but provides each with an opportunity.

It’s an opportunity for Liverpool to show that last season’s finish 17 points below the top two was a fluke, and to reassert itself as the strongest threat to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City juggernaut. Meanwhile, Arsenal can symbolically end the Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp duopoly and demonstrate that it has matured as a competitor following last season’s failure.

There will be six crucial points on the line, as well as progression to the FA Cup fourth round, but there’s also a psychological reward on the line, one that might give one of the sides an advantage if they end up going head-to-head in the final few minutes.