Szczesny - Xmas separates men from boys

Wojciech Szczesny believes the busy Christmas period helps to “separate the men from the boys”.

Arsenal face trips to West Ham United and Newcastle United before 2013 is out and then take on Cardiff City at Emirates Stadium on New Year's Day.

Szczesny describes the schedule as a "tough" challenge but admits it is one he enjoys.

"I think over Christmas time you separate the men from the boys," he told Arsenal Player. “Over the last couple of seasons we haven't done very well at Christmas time so being near the top of the table will give us a big motivation to push even harder this time and make sure that we get the results.

"But it's very tough, you play every two or three days and you need to rotate your team. It gets quite cold sometimes as well but then again I think it's enjoyable as well because I think we're the only league in Europe that does it.

"We play over Christmas, the family comes from Poland and watches all the games for me so I find it enjoyable."

Arsene Wenger is likely to rotate his team over the coming weeks but Szczesny thinks the squad is big enough to cope.

"I think you could see when we played against Hull City at home the boss rotated about half of the team and we still turned up with a big performance," he said.

"When you've got quality on your bench and not only on the bench, it's the whole 20-odd players. It gives you that comfort of when you rotate you know the players are going to perform so I don't think it's that difficult."