Monday, January 5, 2026, 7:41 p.m.
Arenas could not start the year with a positive result and, at least as far as the results are concerned, which is what ultimately counts, it is immersed in its worst moment of the season. Those on the right bank have had three consecutive defeats this season for the first time and their situation becomes darker just before closing the first round of competition. That will be the next matchday against Real Madrid Castilla in Gobela, a duel that will also be the last that the historic team plays in its ‘temple’ before forced to move to a Fadura team to which the finishing touches are still being made.
In their locker, the red and black have 21 points, a couple of them above a relegation mark by Arenteiro – whom they beat in the first league matchday -. The majority, kneaded in Gobela. Because Arenas’ travel continues to be a huge burden. The worst visitor in the group, with only four points added out of a possible twenty-seven, and with a truly worrying scoring record: only four goals scored against the fifteen conceded. A good part of them, during the first half hour of play, which has forced the red-and-blacks to make an extra effort that has rarely served them well.
The problem with Arenas’ goal has been amply diagnosed, it is not something new or surprising. It costs a world for Jon Erice’s men to pierce the rival frame. And it is not precisely due to lack of opportunities. It is a question of success, of creative ability. Even a pinch of bad fortune. Because, and here is the paradox, the historic team is capable of generating a good bouquet of scoring opportunities almost in every game. Some of them very clear situations. But the ball, for one reason or another, doesn’t go in.
Uncomfortable
That is being too big a burden for Gobela’s men, who week by week have been growing in their game, already recognizable inside and outside their own fiefdom. Very defined signs of identity that make them one of those rivals who generally make their opponent uncomfortable with their pressure in the rival field and their pace of play.
“It’s not easy to play against us, what happens is that everyone beats us away from home,” cried Jon Erice after losing to the Ruta de la Plata in another generally good match for Arenas, but in which he was once again penalized for those own mistakes. “We make everyone uncomfortable, we are a rival that makes our rivals uncomfortable, but in the four or five clear ones that we have had we must score a goal,” he stressed.
«In the first half, we had three very close to the goal that did not result in a goal. They haven’t even been dangerous occasions because we shot poorly. In the second, the same. We have kept trying until the end, even with ten. Being quite faithful to what we always do and trying to achieve a style of play that is what we believe in,” he said. «We have had them on the ropes, and I think it is more to our merit than to their detriment. But failing those chances makes us not worthy of points,” lamented the Navarrese Arenas coach.
