With just a few days remaining before the start of the new season, Arsenal approached their pre-season fixture against Villarreal with serious intent. It was a crucial opportunity to fine-tune tactics, test squad depth, and build confidence. As expected, the Gunners began as the more dominant side, controlling possession and dictating the early tempo of the game.
This season carries heightened expectations for Mikel Arteta’s side, with many anticipating a genuine title challenge. However, dominance alone is not enough at this level. Ruthlessness in front of the goal will be essential if Arsenal are to turn performances into trophies. Unfortunately for them, it was Villarreal who took the lead against the run of play.
Villarreal Strike First in Surprising Fashion
The opening goal came from a familiar name, Nicolas Pepe. Yes, the same former Arsenal man who once wore the red and white. His strike stunned the home crowd and offered a reminder of how quickly matches can turn. Arsenal continued to push forward in search of an equaliser, but before they could respond, Etta Eyong doubled Villarreal’s lead, catching the defence out once more.
The Gunners did not allow the setback to overwhelm them. Christian Norgaard pulled one back almost immediately, injecting new energy into the side. The momentum seemed to shift briefly, but after both teams made several changes, with Villarreal making six substitutions at the break, it was the Spanish visitors who found the net again, restoring their two-goal advantage.
Dowman Brings Life Late On
Though the result was not ideal, the latter stages of the match gave Arsenal fans something to cheer. Young Max Dowman impressed after coming off the bench, injecting pace and purpose into Arsenal’s attack. His sharp movement and direct approach led to a penalty, which Martin Odegaard calmly converted to bring the score to 3–2.
Dowman, Odegaard and Noni Madueke were lively in the final minutes, constantly troubling the Villarreal defence and creating several openings. Despite the improved pressure, the equaliser never came, and Villarreal held on for the win.
This was not the performance Arsenal supporters had envisioned so close to the new season. However, there were promising signs, especially from the younger players, and Arteta will no doubt take both the positives and lessons into the campaign ahead.
We couldn’t even win the penalty shoot out! Even Madueke missed one. What a comedic day it’s been and I expect we won’t even win the Emirates cup on Saturday.
Just remember, the results doesn’t matter and means nothing
Also don’t worry about not being able to score from open play, not important
PJ-SA, it was not the result but style of play that concerned me. Gyokeres received little or poor service from the wings and through the middle with only 14 touches during his time on the pitch. Our left side was ineffective again and the right side was obviously was a defensive priority for Villareal to limit Saka. Odegaard was ineffective in taking on defenders, shooting and through balls for the front three. Build up through transition by Arsenal was far too slow and again Arsenal looked defensively poor conceding goals on Villareal’s counter.
Time is running out until the start of the season for Arteta to implement a style of play to optimize the impact of theplayers he now has available to him.
Now with it being pre-season, the actual results are not necessarily of concern. But as usual we had a lot of possession without much else. Not much evidence so far of any change in the way we play.
It’s a bit of a worry, when the one bright spot has had to come from a 15 year old kid. A very talented one at that. But I hope you get my drift.
Pre-season or not, there should be more cohesion than is being shown
With the start we’ve got to our season, the writing could be on the wall very early in the season in the event of those first six games going belly up.🤦♂️🤷♂️
I truly hope I’m wrong. 🤞
@DEREK I have said it countless times that apart from some wingers not living up to fans expectations, Arteta as a coach need to evolve his tactics. Why can we play through the midfield with pace and effeciently?
Anyway, we wait to see what happens in our ManU match. The first match will indicate a lot and test our mettle.
The only positive I take is that I see signs Gyokeres is ready to use his physicality to compete in the box
Sylva,
Why Arteta changed the way we played from two seasons ago, only he will know. But back then we looked more of a threat.
He’s gone from being a front foot manager to an overly cautious one. And if we keep playing in this fashion, it may cost him at the end of this season.
We need to be braver, if we lose then so be it. But go down fighting, not with this slow side to side mind numbingly boring football.
👍
I hope so too Derek. Possession without an end result is no use to man nor beast
O Dear Derek, this game and the one before were just meaningless games, the results “hardly” matter. These games are to test the fitness of the players. We have the 3rd best football coach on this planet, he will change things around. Watch this space
1. We will win the prestigious “Emirates Cup” so that the owners can be briefed we actually win silverware each year.
2. We will maul Man U, (but if we don’t then you can blame Martenelli)
3. Our main CB is out injured. Remove DVD from the pool team and they are so vulnerable. We need a Galactico CB but there are no funds for one – let us all blame the owners/Board.
4. You need at least 15-20 games for the new players to settle in and adjust with their teammates. Remember we are in phase 6 – players settling in.
5. And finally, Skelly is just 18, we need to wait another 3-4 years for the lad to peak. This will be phase 7
The Shoba Reality Show,
I see your sarcasm is still in perfect working order😂🤣👍.
Vs Man United –
Gyokeres.
Trossard. Odegaard. Saka.
Rice. Zubimendi.
Skelly. Kiwior. Saliba. White.
Raya.
@SJ
MLS leaves too many gaps at the back unfortunately Calafiori seem injury prone. MLS needs not to be too comfortable playing Left Bacj inverted position. He needs competition.
I don’t see how Skelly starts – throughout 2025 he’s making mistakes that lead to goals. Are we sure Skelly’s a natural defender? Or a more natural 8 or 6 being played out of position so Arteta can shoehorn another midfielder in – because in reality it’s also shoehorning a defender out.
I think if White fit and because links up well with Saka, we should play timber at left back. If Rice unavailable or rotated, play Skelly at 8. I believe I am suggesting this to help Skelly and his career.
Moon Girl,
Good points, well said. 👍
I’d play Havertz at left back.
Moon Girl,
I thought you didn’t do sarcasm. 🤣😂👍
When do we change the manager? If we don’t progress more this season, may be it would be a good idea to try another manager.
My thought…
James,
You say when do we change manager. Give Arteta a chance, a week or two should do it. 😂🤣👍
I take it none of you saw our terrible penalties at the end! Can’t score from open play, can’t score from pens. I know the result means nothing but our opponents have not won any of their 5 previous preseason games. Calling them friendlies is wrong, more like unfriendlies. More fodder for our rivals to laugh at.
Out of those first 6 fixtures, how many clean sheets?
Can’t afford a slow start to the season. Solutions need to be found fast. Cause it looks like the same issues from last season are still there.
If we concede – especially first and far too easily with simple channel ball finding so much space – then we need to score twice that game. Concede twice, the performance needs three goals in it that day.
If any football fans gooners or otherwise, still think Arsenal top two contenders coming into this season, then they havn’t been watching properly in 2025. If the last season had gone on a few weeks longer we wouldn’t have made top 4, and we bring all those same struggles and issues – 2 7 1 system failings – into the start of this campaign.
Ok, so when I’m feeling good about our team, Arsenal somehow always manages to destroy it, and vice-versa. However we didn’t put on our best team at any stage, I guess maybe it was an attempt to see if we had two first teams, and to be fair, we were the best side, and had we gone down with penalty tackles, we may have won. Penalties were like we wanted to lose. Unbelievable.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
The best side is one that creates chances and bury them. Not one that only has loads of passes/possession in the bag.
I know exactly what Gmv8 is talking about Twinlights
The whole match was played not using anything close to our recognised first 11. Every fit player came on and the new signings got a big welcome from the announcer and everyone got some playing time.
Unfortunately, the Villarreal first goal was a defensive cock up and nothing to do with making chances as far as I could see. Raya and possibly White faffed about near the goal line- suggesting a lack of communication and in it went. Awful.
There were some bright moments but not enough.
Correct Twinlights
Agree Twinlights; winning the possession statistics and lookin good while you have it, serves no.purpose if you don’t outscore the opposition.
Max Dowman was the most impressive player across all the pre season games, we were stifled again by Villareal’s low block, and they hit us on the break, however I think a combination of Eze and Max could break down the low block. Martinelli also liked more lively than of late.
Their penalty box was often crowded but early on with Gyokeres on the pitch I thought there were chances and he worked hard to take advantage of them as did Saka.
My main criticism is there seemed to be a mental block in the final third which occurred after Gyo went off and before Dowman came on.
There were so many changes on the pitch that it’s hard to pinpoint particular players but the youthful Dowman played with freedom and confidence which was a pleasure to watch. Some spectacular dives/tackle avoidance moves but overall a mature performance. He was playing on my side of the pitch and we all commented on how assured he is at 15. I hope he develops as everyone expects and wouldn’t be surprised if he gets chances to play when he’s old enough
Will we even make top 6 next season? I have serious doubts!
To me it seems Arteta has forgotten how to set up a proper attacking team that can create and bury chances from direct open play.
There are moments in the match, when they try to go direct with long balls but they always seem to get pulled back into the slower, possession-based rhythm that’s become second nature to the squad.
And again, we need another source of creativity through the middle. To me, Odegaard needs to spend time on the bench, he needs proper competition in order to step up. If we continue to rely on him as the sole source of creativity through the middle, nothing’ll improve.
On the defensive left, MLS isn’t a natural fullback, and that’s costing us in games like this. He often pushes too far forward and forgets his main defensive duties, leaving too much space behind.
We lack a Xhaka figure in the team who’ll cover the left side when our fullback overlaps/inverts. The coach is aware of this.
I just hope Arteta makes changes and as quick as possible.
It was a disappointing result, particularly at home, but there it is. It’s also only pre-season still so really not that important in the great scheme of things – as long as lessons are learned.
However, the shortcomings at this earliest of early stages must be apparent to Arteta and his staff. It’s up to them to ensure the team corrects those (and properly utilises the hugely expensive influx of new players) from the “get-go” against Utd on 17 August. We haven’t long to wait to see what they’ll do.
For me, although it was a pre-season game. I see Arteta’s after match interviews still contain absolute untruths.
He said they had three shots and three goals, clearly a lie. They had 8 shots, with 7 on target. Now people may not be bothered about that in a pre-season game. But he’s guilty of it on a constant basis.
Stop treating us fans like idiots Arteta. We see the same game as you, just be honest. Stop trying to sugar coat things that are blatantly not true.
DEREK, I must have been dreaming when I saw Villareal hit the left hand post; it seems Arteta learnt to not see things from Wenger?
Ozziegunner,
You may be right. 👍