ARSENAL are pressing ahead with plans for a mid-season break in Dubai despite the political unease in the Middle East.
Manchester United have scrapped a planned trip to Qatar because of increased security fears in the region due to Iran and the USA standing on the brink of war.
Arteta wants Arsenal to go ahead with their Middle East tour despite political unease in the regionCredit: Alamy Live News
But Gunners boss Mikel Arteta is still hoping to get the all-clear for next month’s sunshine break.
He confirmed: “We have talked about different options in this mid-season break to go away from here and live together in a different environment with better weather conditions.
“We still have a few things to look at from a club perspective and the security decision will be the priority.
“If we are advised by the people making those decisions that’s not safe, we won’t be going anywhere.”
Arsenal are hoping to spend around four days training in Dubai during the second weekend in February, when half of the Premier League teams have no fixture.
But Arteta fears those plans will be scuppered by an FA Cup replay if they draw their fourth round clash at Bournemouth.
He said: “It’s a little bit bizarre that we could have a game in the middle of our mid-season break but we can’t change that.
“The authorities probably thought this through, but the priority at the moment is not to protect the players and give the same conditions to every club.
“If you keep going in the cup competitions they have to do something that probably isn’t fair to the rest of the competition because there are no dates to play that many games.
“But I’ve been in England for 16 years so I know exactly what the situation is and I’m not going to use that as an excuse.
“If we can get two weeks off, that will be brilliant. But we’re not going to get that if we have to play a replay so we’ll have to adapt.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
