Bournemouth vs Arsenal: Mikel Arteta concerned FA Cup replay could ruin winter-break plans

Arsenal FC via Getty Images
James Olley27 January 2020

Mikel Arteta has admitted his concern over a possible FA Cup replay wrecking his plans to take Arsenal away for warm-weather training during the Premier League winter break.

The Gunners face Bournemouth tonight in the last of the fourth-round ties knowing that a draw would create an additional fixture, interrupting their two-week hiatus from League action following Sunday’s clash at Burnley.

Arsenal are preparing for a trip abroad — possibly to Dubai or southern Europe — and have been in talks over potential security issues in the Middle East as they finalise their destination.

However, nothing can be finalised until the club’s FA Cup fate is determined and Arteta said: “It depends on the result and on the security issue as well. Ideally if we can, if we have the days, I would like to go somewhere and live together a little bit and put some training sessions together.

“That is the ideal scenario. We win the game, we go to the winter break and we have a long bunch of days to work. We have a lot of things that we need to be doing. We cannot control that but obviously our focus and aim is going to be to win the game.

“[If not], we would need to adjust, reschedule again and go through it. I know it is a possibility so all the planning we are doing is having both options in mind.”

Arsenal will be without the suspended duo Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz at Dean Court while Sokratis Papastathopoulos will face a late fitness test having struggled of late with illness.

Arteta’s first match in charge of the Gunners after replacing Unai Emery last month was a League game at Bournemouth. The Boxing Day clash ended in a 1-1 draw and the Spaniard insisted the club is moving forward as he would like despite winning just two of his seven games at the helm.

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“A lot of things that I wanted to implement, not just towards the players but around the club, in terms of the culture, I'm seeing very good signs in progress,” he said.

“A lot of things about our way of playing and our style as well, even though the circumstances in some of the games have made it a little bit more difficult than expected. But in general, I can see the direction towards what I wanted a month ago.”

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