Mikel Arteta conceded Arsenal’s performance against Aston Villa was nowhere near good enough and warned their mindset must change.
The Gunners were undone by a Bukayo Saka own goal and a second-half brace from Ollie Watkins on Sunday as an impressive Villa side deservedly ran out 3-0 winners at the Emirates.
Arteta was frustrated with his side’s performance, a week on from their 1-0 win over Manchester United
It was the north London club’s fourth Premier League defeat of the season as they missed the chance to climb to sixth in the table.
And the manner of the loss angered Arteta, who declared: “Big teams can’t afford that. We cannot afford that.
“You win a football match, two football matches, three. We expect to win every game and this is the standard that we have to set. So if someone believes that winning one or two games is good enough, they’re completely wrong and I’m not going to accept that.
“I’m not going to accept that mindset at all and it’s obviously not what this club deserves. It’s my full responsibility and now I have to find a way to do it.
“I think that since I arrived here, it’s the first time that I’ve felt that we performed really under our standards and what we are trying to set at this football club. It’s unacceptable.
Alexandre Lacazette rues a missed chance in Arsenal’s defeat to Villa
“I would like to have a game tomorrow morning to get this one out of the system. But as well, in difficult and bad moments, you get a lot of things. I want to see how people react, how players react and if we start to blame each other or if we just look at ourselves in the mirror and then try to become much better than what we’ve shown tonight, which we are.
“Then, after that, get everybody back together and get the fighting spirit, the belief and the commitment that we’ve shown since I got here, into every game.”
Arsenal lost summer signing Thomas Partey to a thigh injury, with the £45million new arrival substituted at the break.
He will now undergo a scan, with Arteta facing an anxious waiting to discover whether he will be without the midfielder for a long period.
We don’t know [the extent] of it, the Arsenal boss said, when asked to offer an update on Partey’s problem.
We have to scan him tomorrow or the day after and see what he felt straight away. Let’s wait and see what the magnitude of the injury is.
I don’t know [if he will go away with Ghana now]. As I said, the doctor will have to have a look at him and probably scan him. Then we will decide what to do with him.