Mallorca lost 3-0 in Saudi Arabia, with Real's final two goals coming in injury-time. Arrasate admitted afterwards he was worried about red cards.
He said, "I have seen some of my players very agitated and a red card would have punished us in the Liga and I could not allow that. I do not know what happened, but we could not make a mistake. The end spoils what the game was like, we competed with dignity.
"The first feeling I have now is that in the ninetieth minute (Johan) Mójica had the ball and the two forwards went to the near post... it could have been a draw and in the end we took three. We came to compete and it has been shown that we have not come for a walk. In theory we were the weakest team and we have shown that we knew how to compete.
"It's true that we were affected by their goal, but up until that moment we controlled it . From then on, they started to play and look for a quick way out. The first goal came after we lost the ball."
Arrasate concluded: "We had a great first half of the season, but against this type of rival we are still behind. We have room for improvement and we can have a good second half of the season. The year started in the worst possible way but there are incentives to take it as a challenge."