If a Premier League season is like a marathon then it is around this time of year you start looking for milestones.
When Arsenal beat Tottenham on Saturday to secure themselves top spot at Christmas, the statistics were quickly rolled out. Apparently the last four title-winners had led the table during Yuletide.
"It's important to be top and I hope the statistic proves right," said Arsène Wenger when confronted with the fact. "If it does then let's just go straight to the end of the season now!
"But really I feel it's too early to say. In the last two seasons at this stage there was only one team involved - Chelsea or Manchester United. This year there are more teams in it so it's impossible to say how things will happen. Being top now is no insurance.
"However this is one of the few years we have beaten Tottenham home and away. It's a good sign and it should increase the belief of the team. It shows we can get three points without being at our best."
Indeed. For all their flowing football, it is Arsenal's new-found ability to grind out tough wins in tight situations that has set this title challenge apart from previous versions.
And here's a little more number crunching. Arsenal's season reaches the halfway point at Portsmouth on Boxing Day. A victory in their 19th Premier League game this term would give them 46 points. If they were to get another 46 in the second half of their campaign they would achieve a tally surpassed only once in the history of the competition.
Not that Wenger is willing to assume anything. The Frenchman is in the midst of his 12th annual crush of festive fixtures. December will see Arsenal play as many Premier League games as they will in January and February combined. And the manager wants to end it the right way at Fratton Park and then Goodison Park.
"We know that the Christmas period is heavy for us," he said. "We played Chelsea and Tottenham at home now have Portsmouth and Everton away. Therefore at the end of Christmas we'll know much more about our chances to win the Premier League."
Harry Redknapp's side have fallen away in recent weeks after a surprising start to the campaign.
"In my opinion they are a team who can finish in the top eight," said Wenger. "Whether they can get into the top four? Well perhaps they have dropped too many points at home. But they have an impressive record particularly away from home and the strong side of Portsmouth this year is their physical potential. Their power.
"At the back they have Distin, Pamarot, Johnson and Sol Campbell. They are all very strong and difficult to move. They have a similar strength in the midfield where I feel John Utaka has been a very good buy for them. There is strength with Kanu and Kranjcar while Benjani has been scoring goals this season for them."
