Arsenal play Bournemouth in the FA Cup 4th round tonight and Gunners manager Mikel Arteta is wary of the possibility of a replay wrecking his plans for their winter break.
Arteta has plans to take his squad to either Dubai or Southern Europe to train during the Premier League break. However, their travel plans cannot be finalised until the outcome of their FA Cup tie against Bournemouth.
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There is also a security concern over a possible visit to the Middle East. Both circumstances are creating an issue for the Gunners travel plans, with a destination not fixed yet.
The Gunners boss Arteta was full of caution while speaking to media and as per the Evening Standard, 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.” he added.
Arsenal will play Bournemouth without the services of their suspended top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and David Luiz who picked up a straight red card against Chelsea last weekend in the Premier League.
The fate of their winter break plans rests firmly on the result against Bournemouth and the London club will look to avoid a replay by getting the victory and progressing to the 5th round of the FA Cup.