Mikel Arteta ponders repeating Arsenal mid-season trick - 'I think it helped'
Arsenal were rejuvenated following last season's January trip to Dubai and Mikel Arteta would be keen on a change of scenery this season despite problematic packed schedule
Mikel Arteta is toying with taking Arsenal on a mid-season break at some point in their packed schedule - after last season’s successful training camp in Dubai.
The Gunners, who face Chelsea on Sunday knowing defeat could leave them facing a double-digit deficit in the Premier League title race, will not get a set January break this time around because of the expanded Champions League.
But having returned rejuvenated following their jaunt in the Emirates at the turn of the year, Arteta can see the value in ensuring his squad can get a change of scenery roughly midway through the current campaign.
Arsenal had lost three on the spin in late December last year but went on to taste defeat just once in their final 18 league fixtures post-Dubai. The trip, naturally, was credited with being a firm reset as they pushed Manchester City to the final day of the season.
And speaking before the trip to Stamford Bridge, with Declan Rice ’s fitness among the chief concerns, Arteta said: “We don’t know where that clicked. Because if instead of going to Dubai, we would have given them a week off and you see the team in Las Vegas for one week, smashing the night.
“We come back the following week and we lose two games in a row. I am in my house, I am sacked.
“If they go to Las Vegas, they do that and we win three in a row. You are telling me now, send the boys to Las Vegas because they are going to kill it afterwards.
“I don’t know. I hope I have just a single thing to pull my thing. I think it helped. The sun, being in contact with nature, getting away for a week.
“It was so intense until Christmas and we needed it. We don’t have that. We will do something different in a way.
“But every day, I think it is trying to put every day something that helps the mood, the energy, the belief on that team, on that players to be the best version of ourselves. That is what we try every single day without exception.”
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