While Newcastle United fans scrambled for trains, tickets and hotels around London for next month’s League Cup final through blissfully blurry vision, wide-eyed Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was leading his side on to an Emirates flight to Dubai for a much-needed warm weather winter training break.

Arsenal are at a crossroads. There is so much still to play for this season – in the Premier League and the Champions League, the two most important competitions – but they are reaching a defining summer under Mikel Arteta.

Mikel Arteta has described Kai Havertz as a genetic "powerhouse" and backed the Germany international to compensate for Arsenal's failure to sign a forward in January.

Arsenal fans believe Mikel Arteta is fuming with the club's ownership after being "let down" in the January transfer window.

Mikel Arteta expects a decision over Arsenal ’s new sporting director to be reached “relatively quickly”. Edu resigned as Arsenal’s sporting director in November to take up a role working for Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis’ stable of clubs.

Ethan Nwaneri is required to use a separate changing room due to the Premier League safeguarding regulations which mandate that players must be 18 or older.

When you manage a top club like Arsenal, where expectations are sky-high, you naturally expect the board to provide unwavering support. Mikel Arteta, throughout the first half of the season, could see that his team was lacking in certain areas,