Mikel Arteta lays into Arsenal: It's the first time we weren't a team

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was heavily critical of his players as they fell 3-0 at home to Aston Villa on Sunday evening.

"First of all congratulations to Aston Villa for the way they played and the victory," he told Sky Sports.

"After that, we performed below our standards and I have to say it's the first time I've seen us play and we weren't a team.

"I take full responsibility. We didn't start well enough, we got away with VAR for an offside situation but we lost all the races, the duels and we were sloppy on the ball. When we created chances we didn't hit the target. It's a really bad combination. We left spaces and on the counter we looked really vulnerable."

Arteta was aggrieved that his players had squandered their momentum after a promising start to the campaign.

"I take full responsibility. I am responsible to make the team perform on the pitch and today we were not a team and it is my job. It is why I am standing here.

"It is a frustration. It takes a lot to build momentum, to build a way of being, living and performing and when something like that comes up it's a hard one to take but in a hard moment you learn more than in a positive moment and I want to see how we react."

To the BBC, he said this defeat was particularly hard to take: "Against Leicester the first half was positive. We can lose a game like that. The way we lost today really hurts."