Interview

'I am not going to accept that mindset at all'

Mikel Arteta was in no mood to find excuses for our defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday.

Our manager was asked whether this was just one of those unfortunate results that comes along sometimes in football - but he had a blunt response.

 

"Not for big teams," Arteta told Arsenal.com. "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.

 

"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."