Place caret below anchor text - html

Question

<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" style="text-decoration: none">
<span class="criteria">any</span>
<span class="caret" style="margin-top:6px;"></span>
</a>
The above piece of code is giving me the following output
any ▼
How to place the caret below the anchor close to the anchor text.
Approx look :
any
▼
EDIT : I have text following the anchor and caret, but I want it to be on same line.
before anchor text any text following the anchor
▼
The any is basically a drop down in the middle of sentence. So I want the caret to be close to anchor text, but below it and not necessarily as a next line
EDIT 2 : code before and after
<div class="control-group">
<div class="controls dropdown">
Create backup if
<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" style="text-decoration: none">
<div class="criteria">any</div>
<div class="caret" style="margin-top:6px;display: inline-block"></div>
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu" id="selector"
style="text-decoration: none;left: 18%;min-width: 65px;">
<li><a title="any">any</a></li>
<li><a title="all">all</a></li>
</ul>
of the following are true:
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

This is my take on it... Notice that, as you add text before -or after- the caret follows the anchor
.caret {
display: inline;
position: relative;
top: 1em;
left: -1.2em;
padding-right: 0;
margin-right: 0;
width: 0;
}
a > .caret {
display: inline-block;
width: 0;
}
<div class="control-group">
<div class="controls dropdown">
Create backup if more code here
<a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" style="text-decoration: none">
<span class="criteria">any</span><span class="caret">^</span></a> of the following are true:
</div>
</div>
Updated to remove extra spaces

Answer 2

You can modify your caret like this:
<span class="caret" style="position:absolute; margin-top:15px;margin-left:-20px;"></span>
That's the final look and the snippet:
Nothing to see there<br>
If <a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" style="text-decoration: none">
<span class="criteria">any</span>
<span class="caret" style="position:absolute; margin-top:15px;margin-left:-20px;">^</span>
</a> unicorns are watching you, be happy!