{"id":492,"date":"2026-08-05T21:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/?p=492"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:10:44","slug":"arsenal-1-3-real-betis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/?p=492","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal 1 &#8211; 3 Real Betis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-testid=\"article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>Arsenal produced a sloppy performance as they were beaten 3-1 by LaLiga side Real Betis in a pre-season friendly in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners fell behind when Kepa Arrizabalaga came out and failed to claim a corner, allowing Rodrigo Riquelme to score at the back post. Nelson Deossa added a stunning second from long range.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal pulled one back when an inswinging corner from new signing Christos Tzolis was headed over the line by Piero Hincapie but Betis restored their two-goal lead when Pablo Fornals found the bottom corner following a misplaced pass by Kai Havertz.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-article-factbox\" data-testid=\"article-factbox\">\n<div class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text-wrapper\">\n<p><h4 class=\"sdc-article-factbox__title\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-title\">How did Arsenal line up?<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"sdc-article-factbox__text\" data-testid=\"article-factbox-text\"><b>Starting XI:<\/b>  Kepa, White, Mosquera, Hincapie, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Havertz, Nwaneri, Dowman, Gyokeres, Tzolis\n<\/p>\n<p><b>Subbed on:<\/b> Copley, Salmon, Gabriel, Vieira, Nelson, Jesus, Martinelli, Julienne, Meslier, Ibrahim, Ogunnaike, Clarke, Kabia, O&#8217;Neill<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mikel Arteta made second-half changes with Brazil internationals Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli given their first cameos of pre-season but Arsenal, still without Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and others involved at the World Cup, were unable to cut the deficit.<\/p>\n<p>The defeat, their first of pre-season, comes as Arsenal continue to push for new signings in the transfer market, with the club having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11670\/13569653\/bruno-guimaraes-transfer-news-arsenal-agree-lb75m-fee-for-newcastle-midfielder\">agreed a \u00a375m fee with Newcastle for Bruno Guimaraes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The key moments from Dublin<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>9 &#8211; <strong>GOAL!<\/strong> Kepa Arrizabalaga fails to claim a corner, allowing the unmarked Rodrigo Riquelme to score at the far post<\/li>\n<li>26 &#8211; <strong>GOAL!<\/strong> Nelson Deossa adds Real Betis&#8217;s stunning second goal with a powerful long-range effort<\/li>\n<li>32 &#8211; <strong>GOAL!<\/strong> Christos Tzolis&#8217;s inswinging corner loops over the Real Betis goalkeeper and is headed in by Piero Hincapie<\/li>\n<li>43 &#8211; <strong>GOAL!<\/strong> Pablo Fornals fires home a third goal for Real Betis following a misplaced pass by Kai Havertz<\/li>\n<li>46 &#8211; <strong>SUBS!<\/strong> Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta makes seven half-time changes, with returning Brazilians Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli among those introduced<\/li>\n<li>55 &#8211;<strong> INJURY!<\/strong> Arsenal youngster Louie Copley is forced off with a serious-looking knee injury<\/li>\n<li>64 &#8211; <strong>SAVE!<\/strong> Real Betis cut through Arsenal but Illan Meslier saves Isco&#8217;s close-range flick<\/li>\n<li>67 &#8211; <strong>SHOT!<\/strong> Martinelli tees up fellow substitute Gabriel Jesus, who fires wide<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Did Arsenal show need for Bruno?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With a lengthy list of players still to return following the World Cup, Mikel Arteta gave another chance to the midfield trio of Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and Kai Havertz following the win over Girona. This time, they found it more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis-Skelly had some bright moments on the ball at No 6. He completed 70 of his 74 passes. But he couldn&#8217;t provide the same level of defensive coverage of Rice, Martin Zubimendi, or indeed Guimaraes, whose move from Newcastle is getting closer.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis-Skelly should still have a significant role to play for Arsenal this season. But Arsenal&#8217;s struggles in midfield in Dublin showed why the club have pursued Guimaraes so aggressively. He will add elite quality and give Arsenal a level of depth their midfield currently lacks.<\/p>\n<h3>Arsenal&#8217;s pre-season so far<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>July 25: Arsenal 3-0 MK Dons &#8211; Arsenal training ground<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>August 1: Girona 1-4 Arsenal &#8211; Girona<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>August 5: Arsenal 1-3 Real Betis &#8211; Dublin<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>August 9:<\/strong> Arsenal vs Borussia Dortmund &#8211; Emirates Stadium, 2pm<\/li>\n<li><strong>August 12: <\/strong>Arsenal vs Como &#8211; Emirates Stadium, 7.30pm<\/li>\n<li><strong>August 16: <\/strong>Community Shield &#8211; Arsenal vs Man City, Cardiff, 3pm<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/arsenal-vs-real-betis\/report\/555716\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal produced a sloppy performance as they were beaten 3-1 by LaLiga side Real Betis&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}