So, after the farce of the Girona game where Arsenal’s IT department managed to prove that ,in an increasingly tech-savvy world, there is still a place for the enthusiastic amateur, we move on to Betis.
The starting team was identical to that which took the field in Spain. Betis had Bellerin, resplendent with full-on “1970s porn star” hair and tache look.
Lansdowne Road looked full, with a great presence from the Irish Gooners. I imagine the bars of Dublin 2 received a hammering pre-match. The stadium controllers had clearly taken their lead from Wembley with regard to sound levels of the pre match “entertainment”. It was deafening on the telly, nicely ensuring that very little actual match atmosphere could develop, so far as I can tell. In fairness, NLF received a rousing rendition from the crowd at kick off.
The game itself was not terribly interesting. We ought to have scored in the first minute after a fantastic move, sweeping across the pitch resulted in Havertz feeding Gyokeres 2 yards out, but the Swede fluffed his lines. That’s fine. Save it for the real games, Viktor.
Shortly after, Kepa made a tame long-distance shot look like the entrance exam for the Chinese Civil Service, pushing out needlessly to Mosquera who himself looked somewhat panicked as he hammered the ball out for a corner under precisely no threat at all. From the ensuing corner, Kepa, a giant of a man, was seemingly baulked in the smallest way and collapsed like a cardboard box left out in the rain, leaving a Betis player unmarked at the back post with oodles of time to hammer home. I suspect, and indeed hope, he won’t be in goal vs Coventry.
On 17 minutes, it was the turn of the Betis keeper to make a cock up, passing out far too close to Tzolis, who had to stretch to cut out the pass and in doing so couldn’t kill the ball and take full advantage.
Gyokeres did well to get a free kick on the right side of the box, holding off a Betican defender and being thrown to the floor judo-style. Nwaneri did nothing from the resulting free kick.
On 26 minutes, Betis went further ahead with a cracking 22 yarder. Kepa could do nothing about this one. 2-0. Great shot, but no pressure on the striker.
On 32 minutes, we crafted a good break resulting in a corner from Tzolis, after his shot was well blocked by a returning defender rapidly blocking his shot.
From that corner, taken by Tzolis, the Betis keeper, presumably taking industrial action in support of his fellow goalkeeping union member, reprised our Keeper’s faux pas for the first goal and simply allowed Hincapié to nod in on the goal line.
The recovery wasn’t to last, though, and just before half time Betis scored again. Poor defending yet again, with Havertz simply gifting the ball to the Spaniards just outside our box allowing Fornals, formerly of the Stratford Relegationists, to drive home from the edge of the box, again unchallenged. Perhaps we were just trying to lull the rest of the Premier League into a false sense of security, after the excellence of our defending last season.
Half time was called and thankfully fans in the ground could get a well deserved Guinness to take the edge off what had been a pretty incoherent first half display.
For the second half there were lots of subs.
On: Copley, Salmon, Jesùs, Gabriel, Martinelli, Nelson, Vieira.
Off: White, Dowman, Mosquera, Tzolis, Gyökeres, Hincapié, Havertz.
None of them made any difference whatsoever and, to be frank, nothing of any note happened in the second half, apart from a very unfortunate injury to Louie Copley who went down clearly in pain under the slightest challenge. I thought the way he went down merited the referee stopping the game, as it clearly did not look like a piece of play acting, but he played on for another minute anyway. Copley had to be carried off the pitch by two of The Pit Crew, not putting any weight on his leg and clearly in pain.
What else happened? Salmon was rightly booked for a foul having been badly skinned on 65 minutes, on the right wing (intelligent foul, showing maturity – ed). Ibrahim came on and gave a good cameo of the defensive midfield role. I like him. Gabriel and Martinelli came on at half time, somewhat curiously I thought, given they only returned to training late last week. I suspect this was a move by Arteta to help prevent a cricket score and in that regard it worked. They both went off after 30 minutes.
Take aways:
We need to look at this through the lens of a pre-season friendly with the season kick off 2 weeks away. We were missing: Raya, Saliba, Timber, Ødegaard, Zubimendi, Rice, Eze, Madueke, Saka, Merino. And possibly new signings.
In the first half, everything good went through Lewis-Skelly, and there were a few good things. He was far and away our best player. He is clearly not a fringe player and looks seriously ready to play as a starter.
That said, this was really a chance for fringe players to stake a claim. Nwaneri, Nelson, Vieira in particular. In truth, none did. Nwaneri doesn’t look like the player he was 2 years ago. At times, Kepa makes Manuel Almunia look like Lev Yashin. The reserve keeper slot at the moment is up for grabs. From what I have seen of Tommy Settford in u-21 games, I’d be tempted to have him as stand in keeper.
Onward.
Spot on, CER. We looked fantastic for the first 8 minutes and should have scored if Gyökeres had been just a bit more nimble. During that eight minutes we looked very good with swift one-twos and progressive passing, much, if not all of it from MLS as you have observed. However the poor goalkeeping for the first goal seemed to let the air out of that balloon and we created little threat after that that was not heavily assisted by Kepa’s doppelgänger in the Betis goal. We looked very lethargic and pedestrian after that first goal and the Betis players were sharper and more competitive. Betis deserved their win and, had all the good chances been taken it would have ended 6-2 rather than 3-1, a scoreline predicted in the preview but in reverse. Your praise and brickbats were issued appropriately.
CER, thanks for the report of a game of which I have only seen highlights. Betis’s first and third goals looked eminently avoidable. The second, the screamer from distance, was one of those that, more often than not, ends up in Row Z rather than the back of the net. Your takeaways seem on the money, although I would expect Tommy Stetford to go out on loan, especially now Meslieer has joined,
Thanks CER, a report that made me glad I missed the game 😉
Seems our defence took the night off and as you suggested there’s no need to take
it too seriously
I suspect MA8 would have had some fairly harsh words for the starting eleven and perhaps served up bitter lemons at the break rather than prime Andalusian oranges. There was very little that was good about either half but the first was the one in which all of the damage was done to our winning momentum and to the enthusiasm of the large group of Irish Gooners who’s turned up resplendent in red and white and in good voice for a chorus of NLFE.
MLS may just have nudged our best player nomination. The strength of his contribution came from his forward movements. His deep defending came nowhere close to matching that. I saw bit more to like in Nwaneri’s game than you did CER and there was one absolutely sublime left foot pass from the centre line ahead of our left sided winger, very much in the style of MO8 at his best which should have resulted in a goal.
Calafiori’s role was a peculiar (not good) one and there were moments when Mosquera had me thinking “We’re going to miss Saliba”. ‘Nuff said about Kepa. I haven’t seen much of Ife Ibrahim but what I have seen definitely hasn’t been Iffy. A prospect, I’d say. And I’d echo all of the condolences regarding Copley’s injury. A terrible outcome on a huge night for him.
But yes. It was only a friendly. Hopefully some of the rust will be shorn before Sunday and then the ‘big one’ against Cesc’s team on the following Wednesday.
Ethan Nwaneri not looking like the player he was two years ago.
Check out the left foot pass to Martinelli than eventually results in a Jesus miss.
I’d keep and I’d play him. He certainly outshone Dowman last night.
Agreed, BtM 4&5.
Fair play.
He’s also 3 years older than Dowman, so should be better. He’s just largely stalled developmentally. With a coach who has made so many players better. He’s under contract so no drama, as far as I’m concerned. But he needs to start showing signs of progress, which I hope he dies. A couple of good passes against a second level Spanish team is a start, no more.
Thanks CER -I saw the same game as you, unfortunately. I guess expectations are high after just winning the league but it’s still very early days in pre-season either way msny of our World Cup players still not back to work.
Nwaneri clearly has talent. What disappointed me about him last night was his attitude. Showing such annoyance and frustration so early in the season is not a good look. You would expect boundless enthusiasm being given another start back at ‘his’ club after a disappointing loan last term.
Nailed it, @8, Trev. He is 19 years old with the world at his feet. He just looks constantly like someone has asked him to eat a sh*t sandwich . He’s not the only person in the world to have had a tough start in life. The difference is he has a way out yet a spectacularly different one at a young age. Embrace it, son.
I expect MA to have as good a look as he can at Ethan this pre-season and
make a decision. There is a huge amount of competition for the role Ethan
wants at the club and it might be hard for Mikel to see it as better for
either the player or the club if he stays.
In other news that Vini bloke isn’t coming it seems. As I said in
previous posts I don’t mind pivoting to Barcola, it would have the added
benefit of not only making us stronger but also sticking it to the mugsmashers,
I laughed out loud at Blogs story linking us to Romero.
Made me think of a World’s Most Hated Footballer XI 😂
Emi Martinez must be a shoo-in for keeper
@10 OM – on checking I see Ethan is under contract until 2030 so another loan (hopefully a better or at least luckier one) this season might be well worth a try too.
Also, talking to yourself is a worrying sign at your age.
Thanks for the report CER.
I don’t take friendlies of this sort seriously and only saw ‘ highlights’
It’s quite some achievement by Kepa to push Meslier to the fringes of the first team ? The boy Ibrahim looks very promising . On we go
I wonder what Yan Diomande’s expectations of playing time at Real Madrid are now that Vini Jr. has signed up for another six years; £110m is a lot to pay for a backup left winger, but I suppose Madrid is made of money.
In other news, UEFA and some of the European national associations haven’t given up the fight against Infantino, but it is looking a difficult battle. I assume they don’t have the 19 votes they need to take action through the FIFA Council, or they would have done so by now.
Infantino’s vote of confidence yesterday came from the people he appointed to the roles they hold and a chosen subset of the executives. No-one who has raised his behaviour as an issue was invited to the meeting. It’s meaningless. The South American Confederation has now also criticised his latest shenanigans and his ‘powerbase’ rests on the African associations, the leaders of most of which he appointed and who have likely all been bought with bags of cash for ‘football development’. UEFA are doubling down on demanding Infantino’s resignation and I hope they succeed.
So now Vini’s a no-go who do we pivot to next? Or do we stick with who we’ve got, with just Tzolis replacing Tross on the left wing? Do we keep Martinelli or sell him?
I think we’ll go for Alvarez. Generally speaking, I’d much rather buy quality players than ones for a specific system. With a coach as flexible as Arteta it’s the quality he needs. He’ll figure the rest out.
Keenos on She Wore is suggesting Musiala of Bayern Munich as a good alternative.
Did anybody really think that we were signing Vinicus? He can’t even defend.
I hate this time of year, so much bullshit, agent talk and, dare I say it, fake news?
Romero is no Sol Campbell in just about every way so ha ha ha.
What other nonsense will be written before the game gets under way? Harry Maguire on Arsenal’s radar? Graham Rix to make a comeback?
Whatever.
UTA
Bath@15: You will get no argument from me that Infantino rules the FIFA roost through his control of the purse strings and his ruthless deployment of it. Nor that there are a lot of national associations who are more than happy with a system that funnels FIFA’s cash to them with no questions asked about what they do with it. Removing Infantino alone won’t fix FIFA. Its whole governance needs root-and-branch reform.
The Vini Jr. story has played out as the proverbial man on the Clapham omnibus would have expected. Our interest was likely only ever going to be a bargaining chip for his agent in renewal discussions with Real Madrid. What we should take from this episode is that our interest was widely seen as credible, reflecting the top-table status our team now has. It is also a reminder that improving our team now requires world-class players. It is that good.
Tomiyasu signs for Palace.
Best of luck to him there.
https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/announcement/palace-sign-takehiro-tomiyasu/
Spot on, Ned @21.
Musiala would be good but is as likely to move to Arsenal as Kane is.
Barcola’s numbers in a farmers’ league are inferior to Martinelli’s over more than this season. At that price we’d be insane.
Alvarez isn’t a 9, he’s another 10 or even a winger. he’s as prolific as late Jesùs and a very similar type of player. He’s no fox in the box and he’s not what we need. Plus he wants to go to Barca not Arsenal.
There may be no-one out there to meet our needs or, on the other hand, Berta and Arteta may know exactly who will fit the bill and are biding their time. Time will tell.
I still think Infantino is a dead duck personally. I noticed
Burnham and Carney sticking the boot in and they have
certainly proven they know a dead duck when they see one.
A history piece from Wislon in The Grauniad
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/07/gianni-infantino-world-cup-sell-off-debacle-fifa-crisis
As he rightly concludes FIfA is irredeemable. Of course as Ned has pointed
out several times UEFA are not Gary Cooper in this High Noon showdown.
@23 Bath,
Good run through of the candidates. Barcola seems the only
currently viable LW option to me but the price is steep and
of course MA/AB may have others in mind.
OM@24: I am coming round to the view that the right model for thinking about FIFA is the Communist Party of China: high centralised control in the hands of one man and a system that runs on patronage and intimidation, and in which the lesser cadres can wet their beaks with impunity as long as they fall into line when required, don’t threaten the centre’s power or do anything to upset the apple cart. There is even a rubber stamp NPC equivalent in the FIFA Council.
Death or insider coups are the usual ways the CCP changes regime. The latter usually depend on one faction finally feeling they are being cut out of the share of the spoils they think is their due. So there might be hope…
Well, well. The Telegraph puts another cat among the pidgeons:
Exclusive: Gianni Infantino’s ‘lover’ was paid off by Uefa
Revelation of six-figure leaving package for alleged lover will increase pressure on Fifa president
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2026/08/07/gianni-infantinos-lover-was-paid-off-by-uefa/
Apropos Ned@26: The CCP has expended tremendous effort and resources in an attempt to turn China into a men’s football powerhouse, and apparently failed miserably. And wasn’t it Marx who said, “Football is the opiate of the masses”?
Matt @25, I meant Barcola when I wrote Dembele @23. Now corrected. Martinelli is every bit as good if not better than Barcola. We shouldn’t spend a cent let alone what PSG want for him, and not get an upgrade. Martinelli will have a more productive season this year – wait and see.
>>>>>>>>>>>>