Arsenal\u2019s first setback of the summer arrived in Dublin, where a flat display ended in a 3-1 defeat to Real Betis in preseason.<\/p>\n
The match began poorly for Arsenal and never really recovered. Kepa Arrizabalaga, under renewed scrutiny amid talk that he may not remain at the club for the full summer, endured a difficult evening as Betis took control. His role in the opening goal was costly, with the goalkeeper coming for a corner, misjudging the delivery and leaving Riquelme with a simple finish at the far post. Kepa then struggled again when Arsenal\u2019s opponents scored their second, with a poor clearance handing back possession before Deossa struck powerfully from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n
Piero Hincapi\u00e9 did briefly give Arsenal some hope when he converted from a corner supplied by new arrival Christos Tzolis, but Pablo Fornals restored Betis\u2019 two-goal advantage just before half-time. By that stage, Arsenal had already been exposed far too often.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta made widespread changes after the interval and gave several younger players an opportunity to impress, yet Arsenal never looked like mounting a meaningful comeback. With Declan Rice, Mart\u00edn Zubimendi and Martin \u00d8degaard absent after their World Cup involvement, the midfield was reshuffled and looked vulnerable throughout. Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri were used deeper, while Kai Havertz played further forward, but the structure lacked control and intensity.<\/p>\n
The first half was especially poor. Betis countered with ease, Arsenal conceded three times before the break, and the defensive protection in front of the back four was nowhere near strong enough. Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri, both hoping to strengthen their claims for bigger roles, did not do enough to shift that picture.<\/p>\n
There was also frustration for Louie Copley, who lasted only 11 minutes before injury ended his afternoon. The 19-year-old, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Crawley Town, went off in visible discomfort after catching his studs in the turf and appeared to twist his knee.<\/p>\n
Arsenal will not be overreacting, but the performance offered reminders that plenty of first-team players are still missing, including Raya, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal were beaten 3-1 by Real Betis in Dublin after a poor first half and Kepa errors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1381],"tags":[1933,1956,1957],"class_list":["post-18277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-match-reports","tag-arsenal-preseason","tag-kepa-arrizabalaga","tag-piero-hincapie-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}