Mikel Arteta speaks on Arsenal defeat to Aston Villa

Mikel Arteta took full responsibility for Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa on Sunday, saying “we weren’t a team”.

Victory at Old Trafford last weekend was another step in the right direction under Arteta, and the Spaniard would have expected his side to build on that morale-boosting result.

However, they slipped to 11th with this defeat and Arteta wasn’t impressed with what he saw.

“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.

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“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.

“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.”

Speaking in his press conference, he added: “I didn’t see the spirit for the first time – and it’s totally my fault as that’s why I’m here. Today I’ve not managed to get the team to play at the highest level like we need to every three days.

“I’m struggling to find the reason but obviously there was something there today. They wanted it more than us. If you can’t defend your box, it’s a really complicated way to win football matches.

“We need to be more ruthless but today it was about how we went about the job and who we were as a team. I didn’t like it from the first whistle when we got away with the goal and then afterwards. It just wasn’t good enough.”