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LONDON. — Mikel Arteta has refused to rule out Arsenal sneaking into the English Premier League football’s top four after insisting their mid-season trip to Dubai was not a holiday.

Arsenal have been out in Dubai over the past week taking part in a warm-weather training camp as part of their winter break.

Players were given time off at the start of last week to have a holiday, but since Friday they have been hard at work on the training      ground.

For the first time since he was appointed in December, Arteta has had an extended period of time to drill the squad and he has been using it to the full.

Arsenal will now return to League action this Sunday when they host Newcastle United and they are currently 10th, with a 10-point gap to Chelsea in fourth.

Asked if he thinks Arsenal are still in the race for the Champions League places, Arteta said: “I want to go game by game.

“At the moment we are far from it, but there are a lot of games to play. It is very tight.

“Everybody is giving points away. It will depend on us. If we are able to put three or four wins in a row, we will be much closer.

“I just want to improve game by game and day by day. I think we have to talk about the present and not much about the future.

“Every time we have been talking about the future and what we can do. It is time to focus on what we have at the moment and how can we maximise our resources here.

“We came here to work (in Dubai), it was like a mini pre-season. I wanted to use it to work on our principles and our styles of play, and as well how we live together.

“We are really happy that we made that decision. We came here to work, it was not a holiday. We have been working really hard.

“We have been working on things that will be good for us over the next few months.” — AFP.