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.

The London Evening Standard reports that executive vice-chair Tim Lewis and managing director Richard Garlick are overseeing Arsenal's search for Edu's replacement. Arteta, though, insisted that Arsenal's failure to sign any players in the January transfer was not down to an absent sporting director.

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 admitted that Arsenal were “disappointed” not to sign anyone in the winter transfer window, but felt the need to remain ‘disciplined’ in how they acted. The Arsenal manager was vocal about his desire for a January addition to the frontline,

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.

Arsenal lacked their usual composure, according to manager Mikel Arteta, as his side bowed out of the League Cup semi-final with a 4-0 aggregate defeat by Newcastle United on Wednesday. Arteta said his team arrived with high expectations that they could overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg,

Mikel Arteta has called on his Arsenal squad to regroup during their warm-weather training break in Dubai and target a trophy-winning end to the season after losing their Carabao Cup semifinal to Newcastle United.

Mikel Arteta looking to shift focus from disappointing end to window by overcoming the two-goal deficit in Carabao Cup semi-final; Eddie Howe also left frustrated by January business; watch Newcastle vs Arsenal on Wednesday,