Arteta: We feel fully recharged

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal have returned from Dubai “fully recharged” after a “phenomenal” warm-weather training camp.

The Gunners return to action on Saturday when Crystal Palace visit Emirates Stadium and supporters are hoping the team have left their travails behind them following a run of three consecutive defeats before the winter break.

After the hectic festive schedule, Arteta allowed friends and family to travel with the players for a camp that blended downtime with training and sponsors’ commitments.

“It was great,” said the boss when asked about the trip.

“It was a phenomenal camp in every sense. We worked really hard on the things that we wanted to do and we recharged our batteries.

“Obviously, the context, changing the environment and beautiful weather helps. The togetherness and the moments that we shared together were great. We feel fully recharged.”

On his highlights of the trip, he added: “The beautiful moments that we spent together. When you have families, kids around and mixing life and job, I think it’s something extremely necessary because we are living their lives, they are living our lives and if we want this to make sense then really everybody has to be part of it, I think it’s a really positive thing to do.” 

Arsenal were top of the table on Christmas Day but damaging league defeats to West Ham and Fulham coupled with an FA Cup exit at the hands of Liverpool have really sapped morale.

While away, Arteta has been keen to remind his players of all the positive things they’ve achieved in the first half of the season.

“It gave us the opportunity to look at things with a bit of perspective,” he said.

“As well, to analyse what we’ve been doing and we take a lot of positives from the first six months of the competition even though results haven’t gone our way in the last few games.

“When you look at what we have produced in terms of the Premier League, with any other team we are up there.”

Having worked so hard to install a new playing identity over during his four-year tenure, the boss is keen that his players continue to believe in what they are doing.

“Continue to be who we are,” he replied when asked what his focus is at the moment.

“Defeats cannot make you lose who you are. Because, if you do that, then you were never who you said you were. We have to continue to be ourselves.

“There are certain details, certain marginal gains that we have to improve and evolve.

This is the beautiful thing about my job as well, is constantly find the evolution of a team and what it needs to keep winning.”

The biggest issue prior to the break was an inefficiency in the final third. The Gunners dominated the defeats to West Ham and Liverpool but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

With new signings looking unlikely, Arteta is keen that his squad share the responsibility for overcoming their mental block in front of goal, and in all other areas of the pitch.

“We have to share goals,” he said. “We are responsible for everything. On set pieces, the goalkeeper is responsible, the striker is responsible. When there is a throw-in, everybody is responsible for what’s going to happen in that throw-in. We have to share that responsibility, like we’ve always done.”