That was not great, was it?

I found a way to watch the game last night against Real Betis, and by the time I’d switched over to watch Live at the Apollo at about 9.45pm, I’d kind of wish I hadn’t bothered.

Now, what we all have to say is that it is a friendly, so whilst I’m not exactly going to wax lyrical over performances today by those Arsenal players, what I will say is that this is friendly number two, it is about fitness, it is about minutes in legs and getting to see a few youngsters too. It is almost literally a zero-stakes game. That being said, I don’t think it is without merit to objectively critique some of the performances, because we are defending a Premier League title here. We made it to the summit, so we need to see that some of these players can keep us there, and pre-season is an opportunity to view who might play a big role.

I think it is also important to drop the caveat in there that this is a Betis team who are on friendly number five now. They’ve got three extra games compared to us, so there’s no doubt they came into this one fresher, with players more prepared, looking to make a little bit of a statement against a team who had the Premier League trophy on display in Dublin last night. And I think that does play a part in what unfolded; they were quicker than us, they took their chances, they were gifted some chances. And Arsenal looked exceedingly sloppy in the defensive third. Uncharacteristically so, a fact for which Arteta was clear in pointing out after the game. This wasn’t a side that delivered on the same fogging standards that he – and we – are used to. In fact, I would say that all Arsenal’s conceded goals last night were due to our own brain-fart moments that you just don’t expect. So let’s go through them.

Kepa’s blunder

Yep, in a repeat of the League Cup final, Kepa got done on a cross, this time from a corner, and within 10 minutes and their first real opportunity, Arsenal found themselves one down. We really should have been one up. If I’m being generous, I’m saying that Big Vik is rusty, because in one minute he should have buried a chance that normally you expect him to put away. We all know his limitations; we know he struggles with controlling the football at times, but when you get him in or around the six-yard box, he’s normally bagging. But it was Betis who were gifted the opener and, I’m just going to say it, so far Meslier has looked a little more assured than Kepa has so far. If Raya is in goal, that goal simply doesn’t happen.

Close your man

You have to hold your hands up and say it was a superb strike from Betis for goal number two, but there were a couple of moments about 30 seconds before the goal in which we gave the ball away sloppily.

Kai snoozing

Silly and lazy from Kai for the third, and he’ll be annoyed with himself for his pass that led to Betis’ third.

We were gifted a little present from the Betis ‘keeper to pull it back to 2-1 in the first half through Hincapie, but other than that first-minute Gyokeres chance, you can hardly say we looked worthy to be even level at the break. There was plenty of possession (we ended the game with 56 to their 43%), but there was no real penetration, with just two of nine shots on target compared to Betis’ seven from ten. And a lot of their chances came through counterattacks, or through individual defensive third errors from those Arsenal players. The errors were all over the pitch, though; it felt like we had a ton of offsides where players could just be looking along the line (in fact, it was only four), we had players who just couldn’t find the final ball, and I thought there wasn’t really a single player on the night who we can say massively impressed. I was hoping to see good stuff from Ethan, but we got a slightly spikey performance from him, clearly worked up and annoyed by something the Betis players were doing. Max never really got into the game; Tzolis was quiet, and Kai/Big Vik I’ve kind of already talked about. If there was anyone that you might think could say “yeah, I wasn’t too bad,” it was probably Calafiori, who was finding pockets of time and space in between lines at times as he does, but that was about it.

Perhaps that is a concern, but when you look at who we ended up finishing the game with, I think it’s just best if we just put this game in a box and forget it ever happened. The final XI included Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Jesus – all of whom I think most of us expect to leave this summer. Vieira certainly looked like he was just going through the motions for me. I saw a social media message that said that three years ago today we won the Community Shield against City, with Fabio Vieira getting the winning penalty – shows what a difference just a few short years can make in football, eh?

Arsenal, Arteta and the team head back to London now, and will no doubt be greeted by Bruno Guimaraes, who signed his four-year-deal having done his medical yesterday, I believe, as reported by HandOfArsenal first thing today. It’s a fantastic signing, and I suspect he’ll be at the Emirates on Sunday to be welcomed by the home fans as we take on Dortmund. I’ve said quite a lot about him already, and £75million is still a little bit of an overpay, but it could have been a lot worse, especially given all the posturing from the Newcastle-based journos saying the number had to start with an ‘8’ to get the deal done. So I suspect all parties are happy. Now we just need to wait for closure on Vini Jr signing his new deal with Real Madrid, and Arsenal can look to pivot to other options for that left wing spot.