Arsenal will take on AC Milan and Lyon as part of their mid-season break during the World Cup as Mikel Arteta's men look to maintain the momentum from the first half of this season, football.london understands.
Arsenal are currently top of the Premier League table following Sunday's win over Chelsea, two points above Manchester City. With one game remaining until the World Cup, the Gunners are likely to have stars such as Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka and Takehiro Tomiyasi all attend Qatar with their countries, but there will be a considerable number of players that will remain part of Arteta's plans during the month off.
In September, football.london revealed how Arsenal had begun considering taking the likes of Kieran Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mohamed Elneny and others on a warm weather training camp to Dubai. The club did the same thing in January of last season when a mixture of elimination from cup competitions and a lack of European football saw them presented with a considerable break.
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According to The Athletic, the Gunners will travel to Dubai on December 4 for their camp before facing Lyon on December 8 and AC Milan five days later. It is expected that the round-robin format will also feature Liverpool.
After travelling to the West Midlands to face Wolves next Saturday, the Gunners squad will be granted 10 days off before returning to London Colney. The report claims that contracts for the competition in the Middle East are close to being signed and confirmation of the fixtures are set to be announced in the next week.
There is the added bonus this year of Dubai's proximity to Qatar. Those players that are eliminated before the latter stages of the World Cup could well join up with the Arsenal group if they do indeed end up going out to the UAE. The mid-season trip could also provide some of the Gunners' talented youngsters a chance to impress in the absence of more senior members of the squad.
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