Definitely has a bearing on the state of affairs, but we are hardly in a crisis at this point. If you'd told me that juve would be first, and one point away from CL qualification with the group we have, one week before Conte's return. I'd happily take that.
We've negotiated this period very well, and I can only see it get better from the 9th of December. As for the Quag issue, its a one off, and I don't think we need to be making it a bigger issue than it is. It's like saying Gio got booed the last game so now we should sell him in Jan coz a section of fans have turned against him. Football and European clubs at large are not structured to work that way.