Arsenal will assess security advice before deciding whether or not to press on with plans to spend a four‑day mid‑season break in Dubai, although the FA Cup could also interfere with Mikel Arteta’s intention to take his players away for warm‑weather training.
Arteta intends to take advantage of the Premier League’s mid-season break, which gives Arsenal a rare free weekend on 8 and 9 February, by decamping to the United Arab Emirates with the squad. They made a similar trip in March 2019 under Unai Emery but, with Manchester United having cancelled their plans to visit the Middle East because of tensions between the US and Iran, the club will take guidance before making a decision.
“The security decision will be the priority,” Arteta said. “If we are advised by the club and the people making those decisions that it’s not safe we won’t be going anywhere.
“We talked about different options in this break to go away and live together in a different environment with better weather conditions and a little bit away from here.
“We still have a few things to look after from a club perspective and when we know all that we will confirm what we are doing. At the moment we have two or three different options.”
Assuming the trip, which Arteta is particularly keen to fit in given his three and a half weeks in charge have brought five games and little concerted training time, is given the all clear there may yet be another hurdle.
Should Arsenal draw their FA Cup fourth‑round tie at Bournemouth on 27 January, the replay will take place the following midweek.
Arteta would have to compromise on his intentions, particularly as he also wants to ensure his players are given some time off with their families before the league campaign resumes against Newcastle on 16 February.
The Arsenal manager was critical of what he sees as poor planning by the football authorities. “We know where the priorities are with the fixtures and the priority at the moment is not to protect the players and have everybody with the same condition,” Arteta said. “So we could change from one scenario to the other, which is a little bit bizarre, but we cannot change it.
“Probably they did [think it through] but I don’t know, with the amount of games we have to play every year it’s not realistic. If you keep going through in the cups there are no dates to play that many games. So at some stage they are going to have to do something that’s probably not fair to the rest of the competition.”
The tie at Bournemouth will be the final game of a three-match ban for the Arsenal captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. His suspension, which follows the red card he received on Saturday for a challenge on Crystal Palace’s Max Meyer, was upheld on Wednesday and starts for the home match with Sheffield United on Saturday.
“He’s scoring goals and has probably been the most important player on the team,” Arteta said. “So to lose him is really bad news for us.”