Arsenal to be affected by Man City postponement as Pep Guardiola reveals FIFA Club World Cup plan

For what it's worth, Arsenal are guaranteed to be a minimum of five points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League table on Christmas Day.

As a result of being crowned champions of Europe for the first time in their history back in June, City have earned a spot at the Club World Cup. A FIFA-organised international club tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions, is being held in Saudi Arabia and commenced last week.

Pep Guardiola's side will enter at the semi-final stage and face Urawa Red Diamonds for the right to take on Brazilian outfit Fluminense in Friday's final. Having said that, defeat for the European champions will not mean an early trip back to England as the third-place match is scheduled for the same day.

What this all means is City will not be in Premier League action this weekend with their originally scheduled fixture at home to Brentford on December 22 postponed — with a new date yet to be announced. Therefore Arsenal have the opportunity to create even more distance between the two sides.

Win, lose or draw against Liverpool on Saturday evening, the Gunners will be above the Cityzens in the table. The best-case scenario is the gap increases to eight points and the worst-case scenario is it remains at five. If it's the former then only time will tell as to what effect it will have on the Premier League title race in the long-term.

Ultimately though, Man City being in Club World Cup action won't have too much of an impact on Arsenal. Well, at least in the short-term as they only sit out one Premier League fixture and a change of scenery could help arrest a recent slump in form which has seen them drop points from winning positions