Mikel Arteta laid into his Arsenal players for their performance against Aston Villa but took full responsibility for the heavy 3-0 home defeat.
Bukayo Saka’s own goal and a second half Ollie Watkins double saw the Midland outfit run out impressive winners at Emirates.
It was a well deserved victory for the visitors as Arsenal failed to stamp their authority on the tie, and the Arsenal boss did not mince his words with his criticism of the performance.
Arsenal boss Arteta said: ‘It’s my fault. We have to find the reasons why. I didn’t like it from the first minute. It’s just not good enough. I want to see a reaction – it hurts big time.
‘I take full responsibility. 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.
‘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.
‘I take full responsibility because it’s not acceptable the performance we put in from the beginning. 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.
‘When you are not at the races and not at your best teams destroy you in the Premier League.
‘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.’
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