Arsenal players were left ‘fuming’ after the loss to Real Betis in their pre-season match held in Dublin, Mikel Arteta admitted.
Arsenal conceded three goals before the break amid a shambolic defensive performance.
Though in possession, the Spanish team were always more dangerous and fired off more shots at goal than Arteta’s troops.
Speaking of the mood in the dressing room after his first half performance, Arsenal manager said: “Very upset, given a hard time. They are fuming, but this is good. That’s what we need.”
The Gunners are yet to be joined by Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka after the players’ participation in the World Cup with England.
While Spanish World Cup champions Mikel Merino, David Raya and Martin Zubimendi are still absent from the Arsenal’s squad, captain Martin Odegaard has returned to individual training after playing with Norway in the competition.
However, despite these players’ absence, Arsenal’s starting eleven in the game against Real Betis comprised four international defenders, while Ethan Nwaneri, Kai Havertz, summer signing Christos Tzolis, Max Dowman occupied the midfield positions, with Viktor Gyokeres up front.
Though Arteta was dissatisfied with his team’s performance, he hopes that defeat will motivate his players to better themselves.
“Well, the important part is to win it and we didn’t manage to win it, so disappointed obviously for the result,” he added.
“It’s true we used 25 players, so you need to give a bit of context to the game.
“In the first half, with more starters, two very different things: how we played and how we competed, because we had some fantastic moments in the time we played.
“The way we competed especially in and around our box in a number of standards that we are used to, so there are things to improve obviously, some positives to take from the game and then a bad result sometimes it’s good to create even more fire in the belly.”
