Ben White marked his return from a knee injury by captaining Arsenal to a 4-1 victory over Girona in their first official pre-season match on Saturday.
Kai Havertz, summer signing Christos Tzolis, Max Dowman and Gabriel Jesus scored for the Gunners, who followed up a behind-closed-doors friendly against MK Dons with a convincing win. White wore the armband with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice absent.
First outing since West Ham
The defender had not played since sustaining a knee injury against West Ham near the end of last season, which ruled him out of Arsenal's final two Premier League matches and the Champions League final. He came through an hour against Girona, seemingly unscathed, and returned after the final whistle to lift the Costa Brava trophy.
With Jurrien Timber not fully fit and William Saliba set to miss the start of the season, White's availability is set to be important at right-back and potentially in central defence.
Viktor Gyokeres, Havertz and Piero Hincapie were withdrawn after half an hour as planned substitutions, while Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli watched from the sidelines after linking up with the squad in Spain later in the week.
Arteta: a lot of things delivered
"I'm very pleased," manager Mikel Arteta said. "In many aspects, obviously, we have worked on a lot of things this week with a big group of players, with the senior players that we had, with the Brazilians that returned during the week, with a lot of our academy players as well.
"A lot of things that we wanted to test, especially during the game - they were delivered in a brilliant way and overall very happy."
Arteta gave every outfield academy player minutes against Girona and expects his options to increase for the Dublin meeting with Real Betis next week.
"I think they deserved it. The game and the context of the game allowed that to happen, they have been brilliant in the last few weeks with us. What an experience," he added.
"We had to adapt to the conditions, to the pitch, to a lot of things, which is a good test for us as well, to increase our competitive level. But overall, very pleased.
"Yes, and we're going to start to get a few more players as well and the players that joined, they look in good shape.
"Obviously, there are a lot of things to evolve and improve as a team, but I think we're in the right direction."
Odegaard closing in on return
Players involved at the World Cup have had three weeks off after their exits, meaning Odegaard's return to training is imminent. The Norway captain's side were beaten by England in the World Cup quarter-finals on July 11, and he should shortly rejoin the squad, though he is unlikely to feature against Real Betis on Wednesday, August 5.
