Arsenal's underwhelming pre-season continued with a 3-2 loss to Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup. Despite a comeback attempt, poor defending cost the Gunners, raising concerns ahead of their Community Shield clash with Manchester City.

Premier League champions Arsenal's underwhelming pre-season run continued with a second successive loss to Borussia Dortmund as sub-par defending cost them the Emirates Cup on their home soil on Sunday.

Gunners Fall Short in Emirates Cup Clash

Arsenal did try to come back from a deficit of 0-2 but a 58th minute strike from Joane Gadau helped Dortmund seal the win.

Previously, they had registered a 3-1 loss to Real Betis after starting off the pre-season with a thumping 4-1 win over Girona.

Arsenal had plenty of chances throughout, with Viktor Gyokeres wasting his attempt in the first half as it hit the woodwork.

Samuele Inacio (7th minute) and 18-year-old wonderkid Konstantinos Karetsas (29th minute) put the German side ahead.

In the second half, Ethan Nwaneri (54th minute) pulled the Gunners in the fight, before Gadou made it 3-1 in the 58th minute. Viktor converted a penalty in the 69th minute to keep the Premier League champions in the fight, but Borussia managed to keep the scoreline undisturbed.

With seven days to go before the FA Community Shield game against Manchester City, Arsenal and its manager have some things to fix.

Arteta Admits 'Things Have to be Improved'

Speaking after the match, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said, as quoted by Sky Sports, "We lost the game, obviously not happy about it. Things obviously have to be improved. Certain players need to get more minutes and rhythm, which is going to be really helpful."

"It has to hurt, whether it is a friendly match, a test or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, we know where we are. We know that we are missing still a lot of players and some players that haven't had enough training. And yeah, sometimes losing is good."

"We conceded some poor goals the other day, some poor goals today, in the way we competed, especially. But that's a very collective responsibility. So, we need to improve with the players that we have. And we want to improve, for sure we will," he signed off.

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