Mikel Arteta demands immediate response from Arsenal after Aston Villa thrashing

Ollie Watkins’ double paved the way to Villa’s comfortable victory over Arsenal that has Arteta wanting to play again on Monday to get the defeat out of their system

Shrivathsa Sridhar
Monday 09 November 2020 07:49 GMT
Comments
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang appears dejected at full-time of Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang appears dejected at full-time of Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa (Reuters)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he expects a strong response from his players when they return to Premier League action following their 3-0 home defeat by Aston Villa on Sunday.

Ollie Watkins scored twice in the second half after Bukayo Saka's own goal after 25 minutes as inconsistent Arsenal fell to their fourth defeat from eight matches this season to sit 11th in the table with 12 points.

"I'd like to have a game tomorrow morning to get this one out of the system. But... in difficult and bad moments, you get a lot of things," Arteta told the club website on Sunday.

"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 great Ian Wright said that it was among the worst performances he had seen from an Arsenal side.

"It was poor in every department. They need to break the lines, they need space to hit the ball into, they were dithering on the ball," Wright told the BBC.

"It was a million miles away from the performance against Manchester United (where they won 1-0). They were streets ahead of us today."

Arsenal travel to Leeds United on 22 November after the league resumes following the international break.

Reuters

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in