{"id":307595,"date":"2025-07-31T21:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307595\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:47:12","slug":"three-things-we-learned-from-arsenal-defeat-to-tottenham-as-mikel-arteta-tests-new-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307595\/","title":{"rendered":"Three things we learned from Arsenal defeat to Tottenham as Mikel Arteta tests new tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Arsenal<\/p>\n

Arsenal<\/a> were beaten for the first time in pre-season as they lost 1-0 to rivals Tottenham.<\/p>\n

Pape Matar Sarr scored the only goal as Spurs triumphed in the first-ever north London derby staged overseas.<\/p>\n

In a disjointed game, Arsenal struggled to find their rhythm and failed to muster a shot on target during the first half.<\/p>\n

The Gunners improved after the break and enjoyed spells of pressure but were unable to find a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Here, Standard Sport looks at three talking points from Arsenal\u2019s final game of their pre-season tour to Asia\u2026<\/p>\n

Pre-season is often about experimentation and that certainly felt like the case for Arsenal in this game.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta<\/a> named a familiar side, with Christian Norgaard the only new signing in the XI, but there was a change in style.<\/p>\n

Arsenal repeatedly looked to go long against Tottenham, especially in the first half.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Raya was direct when playing out from the back<\/p>\n

Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper David Raya was direct when playing out from the back, often attempting to find Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli with balls over the top of Spurs\u2019 defence.<\/p>\n

It represented a shift from Arsenal\u2019s usual possession-based approach that they used for much of last season.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in the first half against Spurs, the Gunners had 49 per cent possession – which is low by their standards.<\/p>\n

Arteta has often spoken about his side needing to be \u201cunpredictable\u201d and a shift to this approach at times during the upcoming season would certainly represent that.<\/p>\n

Tottenham will argue that they could, and perhaps should, have won by more against Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Thomas Frank\u2019s side hit the woodwork three times across the course of the match and, especially in the first half, looked the most threatening.<\/p>\n

Two of the times that they struck the post was in the first half and on both occasions it was from a set-piece.<\/p>\n

Arsenal looked shaky on set-pieces towards the end of last season without Gabriel in the side – and it was a similar story on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian, who was absent because he is still recovering from hamstring surgery in April, is a big miss, in particular when defending corners.<\/p>\n

Tottenham twice had corners that went right the way across Arsenal\u2019s six-yard box before hitting the post.<\/p>\n

Raya is usually so commanding when coming for crosses, but he had a rare off-day as the Gunners fell to defeat.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres make his Arsenal bow<\/p>\n

The biggest cheer from the Arsenal fans came when they got their first glimpse of Viktor Gyokeres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The supporters in Hong Kong were made to wait for a first look at the Sweden striker, who came on with less than 15 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Viktor Gyokeres made his Arsenal debut as a late substitute<\/p>\n

Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arsenal are being careful with Gyokeres\u2019 minutes as he did not take part in any pre-season training with Sporting before joining last week.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has only had two training sessions with his new club and is still getting up to speed.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres is clearly hungry to make an impact and, even in this brief cameo, his willingness to run in behind was clear.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have two more pre-season friendlies next week, both at Emirates Stadium, and that should provide fans with a proper sighting of their new star striker.<\/p>\n

This was quiet start from Gyokeres, but he will hope for fireworks in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal were beaten for the first time in pre-season as they lost 1-0 to rivals Tottenham. Pape Matar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[80,79,16,15,165],"class_list":{"0":"post-307595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-mikel-arteta","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-viktor-gyokeres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114950049005986230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}