Who has the most and least gruelling December fixture list among Premier League teams?

Mikel Arteta is not happy with Arsenal's festive fixture list - does his complaint have some merit?

After the Gunners played Brentford on Wednesday evening, they must travel to Aston Villa on Saturday for a 12:30 GMT kick-off. It is a really quick turnaround.

Arteta believes the Villa fixture should have been scheduled for Sunday to provide additional rest.

Unfortunately for Arteta, only teams who are away in Europe on a Wednesday night can opt out of that Saturday lunchtime TV slot, so his complaints will fall on deaf ears.

December is notoriously busy for Premier League clubs, with a midweek round of matches, the festive programme, European fixtures and the Carabo Cup quarter-finals.

So who has the most arduous run of fixtures in the five-week period through to the first weekend of January?

December is hard enough on teams in the Conference League. It is even worse if you do well in the EFL Cup, as Crystal Palace are about to discover.

The final two rounds of the Conference League are played on consecutive Thursdays with Palace away to Shelbourne on 11 December and at home to Finnish side KuPS seven days later.

But this is only part of the story for Palace, fifth in the Premier League. They face 11 games, six of them away, in the 36-day period between 30 November and 4 January. Their longest rest period is five days, the worst schedule of all clubs.

Palace have an EFL Cup quarter-final tie at Arsenal to play, a game originally scheduled for the midweek of the KuPS fixture.

It has been pushed to Tuesday, 23 December and as part of the rejig, Palace's game with Leeds was brought forward 24 hours to Saturday, 20 December.

They now must play KuPS and Leeds within 48 hours, before their cup tie with Arsenal.

Over a gruelling five-week period, they will have played Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle.

The schedule is not quite so troubling for Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, but it is tough.

Chelsea have 10 games to play, and six of them are away.

Having lost at Leeds on Wednesday, they visit Bournemouth at 15:00 GMT this Saturday.

Chelsea have a difficult away game in the Champions League too, facing Atalanta, next Tuesday.

They do get a full week off between their visit to Newcastle on 20 December and a home game against Aston Villa on 27 December.

It also helps that they have two home matches after Christmas, against Villa and Bournemouth. Plus, their EFL Cup quarter-final is away to League One club Cardiff City.

Newcastle United also have 10 games, five at home and five away.

Their task is made more difficult by an away Champions League fixture in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen next Wednesday. They do get an extra day's rest before making the short trip to Sunderland in the Premier League on Sunday, 14 December.

Newcastle are the only club other than Palace not to get a full week off at some point in this period.

The six days between a home game against Chelsea and an away day at Manchester United on 26 December is their longest rest. And they have two away games after Christmas. At least their EFL Cup tie is at home to Fulham.

Mikel Arteta's Arsenal also have an equal split of five at home and five away.

Arsenal and Aston Villa, their opponents on Saturday, both played on Wednesday night, and have European away games next week. The Gunners are at Club Brugge, with Villa visiting FC Basel.

Arsenal will also play Wednesday-Saturday next week but face Wolves the following Saturday at 20:00 GMT.

With their EFL Cup quarter-final rescheduled, Arsenal get the midweek of 15 December off, rather than the one which leads into Christmas.

They have two home games (against Brighton and Villa) coming out of it but have a shorter rest period of the teams to play 10 or more games with Bournemouth away on Saturday, 3 January.

Pep Guardiola's team have five home games and five on the road too.

City face the difficult Champions League trip to Real Madrid next Wednesday but, like Newcastle, don't return to Premier League action until the Sunday when they go to Palace.

Their EFL Cup game is at home to Brentford.

While City get a week off at Christmas, they return to action with two away fixtures, at Nottingham Forest and Sunderland, but with an extra day's rest in between.

Nottingham Forest have nine games with five away.

They travel to the Netherlands to play FC Utrecht in the Europa League on Thursday, 11 December. Off the back of that there is a home game against Tottenham on the Sunday.

Forest have only three days between their Christmas games at home to Manchester City and Everton.

Arne Slot's Liverpool also have five away matches from nine games.

Trips to Leeds on Saturday and Inter Milan next Tuesday are followed by a home match with Brighton on the following Saturday.

Liverpool then play one game in a two-week period, and have both Christmas games at home (Wolves, Leeds). They also have two extra days' rest compared to some teams.

Aston Villa have five of their nine fixtures at home.

The real negative is a short three-day turnaround after Christmas, with tough games away at Chelsea and at home to Arsenal.

But with no EFL Cup quarter-final to be concerned with, there is a period of one match in 13 days.

In a quirk of the fixture list, Tottenham are the only one of the nine English clubs in Europe to be at home next week.

It's a favourable game for Spurs too, at home to winless Slavia Prague.

Thomas Frank's team have a period of one game in two weeks, and while they have back-to-back away games after Christmas (against Palace and Brentford) they are both in London with an extra day's rest.

Brentford and Fulham are the two clubs who have EFL Cup commitments, but are not in Europe.

Both are away and they have a very similar spread of league fixtures too.

The remaining nine clubs only have the Premier League to worry about, so fixture congestion is of no real concern.

Bournemouth, Brighton, Everton and Wolves have it slightly worse than the others, with away games on 27 December and 30 December.

Sunderland have a good spread of games, with four days from their home match against Leeds on Sunday, 28 December to hosting Manchester City on Thursday, 1 January.

There are no cup games at all, but they have already had to play Liverpool, and must still face Manchester City (twice), Newcastle and Tottenham.

In theory, it looks to have fallen into place for the perfect December for Manchester United.

They don't have to play in Europe, or the EFL Cup, and they have a near-perfect spread of fixtures.

After next Monday they play twice in 18 days, and over Christmas play Friday-Tuesday-Sunday.

Their quick-fire double-header is against rock-bottom Wolves.