Mikel Arteta has opened up on the angry reaction inside the Arsenal dressing room following a chastening 3-1 pre-season defeat to Real Betis, insisting the frustration felt by his players could ultimately prove beneficial ahead of the new campaign.
The friendly, staged at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Wednesday night, turned sour for the Gunners in a first half littered with individual errors. Goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and forward Kai Havertz were both culpable for mistakes that were punished by the LaLiga side, while summer arrival Christos Tzolis continued his encouraging start to life in north London by setting up Piero Hincapie for a headed goal.
Arteta used the match to rotate heavily, calling upon 25 players across the 90 minutes as several first-team regulars were carefully reintroduced following their breaks after international duty and the World Cup period. That context, the Spaniard explained, needed to be factored into any assessment of the result.
Describing the mood among his squad afterwards, Arteta did not shy away from revealing just how unhappy his players were with their display. "Very upset, given a hard time. They are fuming, but this is good. That's what we need," he said.
Despite the setback, Arteta was quick to point out that the outcome should not overshadow some encouraging moments, particularly from those who featured for longer periods in the opening period. "Well the important part is to win it and we didn't manage to win it so disappointed obviously for the result," he said. "It's true we used 25 players, so you need to give a bit of context to the game."
He continued by drawing a distinction between two different aspects of the performance. "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," Arteta explained. He added that Arsenal had matched their usual defensive standards in certain phases, particularly around their own box, even if there remains clear room for improvement. "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," he said.
That notion of turning disappointment into motivation appears central to how Arteta wants his squad to process the defeat, with pre-season results traditionally viewed as secondary to fitness development and squad cohesion at this stage of preparation.
Amid the wider frustration, one bright spot for Arteta was the continued progress of teenage forward Ceadach O'Neill. The Northern Ireland youth international, who is just 18, came off the bench late in the game in place of Ethan Nwaneri and again caught the eye with his composure and impact, building on what has already been a promising pre-season for the young attacker.
Arteta was full of praise for O'Neill's temperament and potential. "I've been really impressed with him," he said. "What he says, he's really mature and really focused, and he has a tremendous quality to him."
With Arsenal still working through a rotation-heavy pre-season schedule, Arteta will hope his squad channels the frustration from the Betis defeat into sharper performances as they continue building toward the start of the new season.
Based on reporting from standard-football.