Gunners left 'fuming' after sloppy Real Betis defeat
· Yahoo Sports
Mikel Arteta says his Arsenal players were "fuming" after their disappointing pre-season defeat by Real Betis in Dublin.
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The Gunners conceded three first-half goals during an uncharacteristically sloppy defensive performance.
Despite having less possession, the Spanish side were more threatening throughout and had more shots on target than Arteta's men.
When asked what the mood in the dressing room was like after their first-half display, the Arsenal boss said: "Very upset, given a hard time. They are fuming, but this is good. That's what we need."
While unhappy with Arsenal's performance, Arteta hoped the defeat would spur them to improve.
"Well, the important part is to win it and we didn't manage to win it, so disappointed obviously for the result," he added.
"It's true we used 25 players, so you need to give a bit of context to the game.
"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.
"The way we competed especially in and around our box in a number of standards that we are used to, so 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."
The Gunners are still without Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka, who have still not joined up with the squad following their World Cup campaign with England.
While Spain's World Cup winners Mikel Merino, David Raya and Martin Zubimendi are also yet to return, captain Martin Odegaard has resumed individual training after featuring for Norway in the tournament.