Our match against Newcastle United on Wednesday will be our 11th of a relentless start to 2025.
After the semi-final second leg at St James’ Park though, we have a gap of nine days before we return to action away to Leicester City in the Premier League, on Saturday February 15. With that in mind, Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff intend to use the time to fit in some warm-weather training in Dubai, and will be hoping for similar results to last year.
At the start of 2024 we jetted off to the United Arab Emirates during the winter break in early January, on the back of a run of just one win in seven games, during which we netted only five times.
Upon returning from Dubai though, our form was rocketed. We embarked on an eight-game winning streak in the league, blasting 33 goals and conceding just four.
So will the manager be looking to replicate everything about last year’s visit when the squad head there again next week?
“There are a lot of things that will be similar,” Mikel said in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday. “The location, where we train, but of course we will have to modify it.
“We are going at a different moment of the season, different numbers, probably the team needs a different stimulus, so we are preparing a few things and hopefully it will work like it has the last few times.”
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