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Football London
Football London
Sport
Chris Wheatley & Kaya Kaynak

Gabriel Martinelli stars as Arsenal beat QPR in behind closed doors friendly

Arsenal secured a 3-2 victory in a behind closed doors friendly at London Colney football.london understands.

The Gunners have several players who were not called up for international duty still at their training ground, many of whom are were involved in the game.

football.london understands that Mikel Arteta opted for a strong line up that included Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel, Ben White, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Alexandre Lacazette.

Several other youngsters were also involved including 17-year-old defender Taylor Foran.

Foran uploaded an Instagram story in which he revealed his involvement in the game, as did Mauro Bandeira, the 17-year-old Portuguese midfielder who also played several minutes.

Arteta's side face Crystal Palace in their next Premier League match after the international break, with the Spaniard admitting that his team were lucky to come away with just a point against Brighton last week.

He said: “I think it was a point gained because I don’t think we deserved anything more than that.

“We did deserve the point because we defended really well the last 15 or 20 metres of our pitch.

“But in the end we never felt in control of the game and we struggled to break their press and get a good sequence of passes and impose ourselves in the final third and they made it really tough for us.”

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