Arsenal FC: Work to do as Villarreal defeat exposes naive weaknesses

Arsenal Football Newsletter

Arsenal were handed their second defeat of pre-season as they were beaten by Villarreal.

Arsenal hit back through efforts from Christian Norgaard and Martin Odegaard, but it was not enough to stop them falling to a defeat.

And, here, Standard Sport takes a look at some talking points from the game…

Arsenal will take time to adapt to Gyokeres

Fans had arrived eager to get their first glimpse of Viktor Gyokeres, but instead it was Norgaard who found the net.

The Danish midfielder headed home at the back post midway through the first half after Gabriel Martinelli’s corner found him unmarked.

It was the sort of chance Gyokeres would have loved to have been presented with, however, he largely had to feed off scraps.

The Swede’s best opportunity came just before he was taken off around the hour mark, when a through-ball from Mikel Merino found him in the box.

Gyokeres was quick to get his shot off, but from a tight angle, Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior was able to keep it out.

Other than that, Gyokeres was largely quiet as he made his first start for Arsenal. That was not due to a lack of effort and, more than once, he made runs in behind – but his team-mates did not find him.


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