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Arsenal suffered a 3-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates Stadium in their latest pre-season fixture.

Two goals inside the opening half-hour left Arsenal reeling, and after winning the Emirates Cup in each of the last four years, they missed out on the trophy this time.

Arsenal pulled one back through Ethan Nwaneri, but Jaone Gadou restored the German side’s two-goal cushion. A Viktor Gyokeres penalty cut the gap again, though it was not enough for Arsenal to get their hands on the trophy.

Arsenal believed they had found a last-minute equaliser when Gabriel Martinelli finished smartly, but the effort was ruled out for offside.

Here are five key takeaways from the game.

After shipping three goals against Real Betis in Ireland last week, seeing Gabriel Magalhaes back in the starting XI came as a welcome boost for Arsenal.

Yet it did not appear to make much difference, as Samuele Inacio put Dortmund in front after just six minutes. Fine work from Felix Nmecha and Fabio Silva carved Arsenal open down the left side of the box, getting in behind Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel, and Inacio applied the finish.

Dortmund were not done there.

Konstantino Keretsas made it 2-0 before the half-hour with an excellent effort from just inside the area. It was a different scorer for Dortmund, but once again the breakthrough came on the same side of Arsenal’s defence.

Dortmund struck for a third only minutes after Nwaneri had reduced the deficit for Mikel Arteta’s team. Gadou found the net from a corner.

The side that had the Premier League’s best defence last season will be worried by how frequently they have been opened up during pre-season.

Arsenal’s squad depth has often been praised, but with a number of important players still unavailable, they looked badly stretched.

Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and David Raya are among the Arsenal stars who have not yet returned from their post-World Cup holidays, and their absence was clearly felt.

Max Dowman and Nwaneri both turned in encouraging displays, but they did not offer the same cutting edge in attack that Saka and others bring. Cristhian Mosquera and Ben White avoided any major rash mistakes, but they too lacked the composure that Jurrien Timber and William Saliba gave Arsenal for such a long spell.

With no clear return dates yet for Timber and Saliba, and with several senior players likely to need time to get fully up to speed at the start of the campaign, Arsenal may have to enter the transfer market once more.

After scoring against Girona and providing an assist against Betis, Christos Tzolis continued to catch the eye in an Arsenal shirt.

For the 18th club match in succession, including games for Club Brugge, the Greek forward recorded a goal involvement, this time teeing up Ethan Nwaneri for a straightforward finish.

With Rice still away after the World Cup, Tzolis took charge of free-kicks, and the quality of his deliveries was such that it almost felt as though the England midfielder was still on them.

Gabriel and Kai Havertz were the main culprits when it came to wasting gilt-edged openings created from Tzolis’ balls into the box.

Even though he did not score early on, Gyokeres was on the end of several opportunities and was at the heart of most of the danger Arsenal created against Dortmund over the course of the match.

The Sweden international remained a threat throughout, with his most notable effort crashing against the crossbar from a tight angle after Max Dowman had slipped him through.

While he passed up chances during the game, the striker still showed Arsenal supporters his finishing ability when he calmly sent his penalty into the corner with 20 minutes remaining. Gyokeres underlined the danger he can pose to any opposition.

As noted already, Arsenal still have players due to return to the squad, while those currently featuring are not yet fully match fit, with the Premier League season still a fortnight away.

Arsenal showed last season that they are among the best teams in the world by winning the league and reaching the Champions League final. There should be no major panic at this stage.