Morning all. Let’s start with the game in Dublin last night, and I think it’s fair to say this was not good stuff. Obviously it’s just pre-season, but there was a lot of pre-game anticipation which Arsenal didn’t come close to living up to. The team was solid enough, and I think we had an early chance which fell to Viktor Gyokeres but it was cleared away – I’ll stand to be corrected on that as I was more or less at pitch level and this was up the other end (and there were no replays in stadium). Real Betis went ahead when Kepa came for a corner we probably could have avoided conceding, got nowhere near the ball, and some lad cracked it home at the back post. The keeper was poor again when he spooned a clearance up in the air, they played it inside and while the strike from Nelson Deossa was superb, I think both Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri could have done more to close him down. It began with that poor Kepa kick though. Piero Hincapie got one back from a corner, but a giveaway from Kai Havertz presented Betis with another chance, and Pablo Fornals fired inside the near post with Kepa rooted to the spot. I have to say, I’m beginning to have some doubts about this goalkeeper. Mikel Arteta made some changes at the break, giving some first pre-season minutes to Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli, who looked lively at times. Gabriel Jesus also came on and missed a decent chance, but that was about it, and we then saw a host of young players to see out the game. Sadly, there looks to have been a serious injury sustained by Louie Copley who went down and my immediate thought was ACL. Arteta says he’ll have a scan but that it doesn’t look great for the 19 year old. All in all, a pretty poor night on the pitch, and the manager said afterwards: You’re always upset when you lose a football match. Two very different halves, especially with the personnel that we used today. But in the first half there are two different things, to play well and to compete well. And we did the first one quite well in a lot of moments, but the compete part, especially in and around our box, is not to the standards to win a football match against a good side. Like I said, it’s just pre-season, and I’m not upset by it. It was just a shame there wasn’t more of a performance, especially for the many kids who were there. I realise it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but the stadium was sold out, packed mostly with Arsenal fans, and it showed just how well supported the club is in this country. There wasn’t much to cheer about bar the Hincapie goal, but that’s football I guess. There will be better days for these young fans in the future, no doubt. Arsenal now travel back to London ahead of the game against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, and then Como next week. I suspect there’ll be plenty of work done on the training ground to ensure we’re better against those sides than we were last night. — So, to the Vinicius Junior situation, and after a meeting yesterday, it seems like Real Madrid have upped their offer to the Brazil international, despite all those reports saying there was simply no way they were going to do that. Real Madrid raise contract offer to Vinicius Junior. Proposal said to reflect 26yo’s importance to #RMFC & project. Decision time for Brazil int’l; renewal, await free agency next summer (club want to avoid) or pursue Arsenal opportunity @theathleticfc.bsky.socialwww.nytimes.com/athletic/749… — David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 2026-08-05T17:21:24.319Z There is, reportedly again, confidence on their part he’ll stay, and the whispers around it don’t seem particularly promising from an Arsenal perspective. The only thing I’d say is that as a mechanism for extracting the best possible offer from Real Madrid, and an even better one from Arsenal, I didn’t expect anything other than this development from that meeting. It gives him something closer to what he wants if he chooses to stay, and more leverage if Arsenal continue their pursuit. That might well be a very Homer Simpson and the pig outlook (“It’s still good! It’s still good!”), but let’s see what he decides. My gut feeling is that he’ll be a Real Madrid player for the season ahead, and that was always a possibility Arsenal had to contend with when they went for him. Which, by the way, I think we absolutely should have done if we thought there was a chance to do this deal, however difficult it might have been. You can’t shout about how we have to show ambition and then complain when we do. Signings of this stature are incredibly complicated at the best of times, and as I’ve said before, not the kind we’re usually even involved with. So, I have no issue with the pursuit, regardless of how it ends up. What I would say though is that when you go after a player like this, it leaves you with a situation to manage if you don’t get him. Expectations are raised when you’re linked with a player of this profile, and not just because of his standing in the game or his star-power. It’s also about how clearly people can see what his quality could add to our team, and when you look across our forward line, there’s no question in my mind that there’s significant room for improvement. The question is then: what next? I suspect any player will feel a bit underwhelming if you don’t get someone like Vini Jr, but that doesn’t alter the fact you need someone. You’ve basically told everyone how much that addition is needed because of how far you were prepared to go financially for this one, and all the knock-on effects of that. The answer can’t be ‘nobody’, because that’s not good enough. We’ve seen Arsenal pivot before, and pivot successfully when missing out on a main target, and it looks like we might have to do that again. Let’s see. I had a dream last night there was a Mykhaylo Mudryk ‘Orn-bomb’. I’m glad I woke up, but in the real world, the ‘Smart, fast, ambitious’ transfer window may well need a serious injection of that first quality. Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Have a good one folks. The post Arsenal disappointing in Dublin as Vinicius Jr pursuit gets more complicated appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.