Arteta bemoans Arsenal's performance against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

The result against Villa has highlighted the fact that the north London club seem to play better away from the Emirates.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta congratulates Aston Villa. [Getty]

The Gunners looked lacklustre in attack and were not firing on all cylinders last night.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta lauded Aston Villa for their display at the Emirates on Sunday evening.

The Gunners were thrashed 3-0 at home, thanks to an own goal from Bukayo Saka and a double from Villa's Ollie Watkins.

Arteta’s boys were heading in the right direction as they returned to winning ways last week, beating Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford, but they have taken a step back against Villa - who currently sit in sixth spot in the English top flight.

Speaking to Sky Sports after defeat, Arteta took full responsibility for the result, acknowledging the effect it’ll have on their momentum.

"First of all congratulations to Aston Villa for the way they played and the victory," the Spaniard said.

"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.

"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."

When asked about striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang needing to be closer to the goal, Arteta replied as Arsenal.com quoted: "A team function is a collective thing that we have to do more. We certainly are getting in some situations, but the end product is something we have to improve and about the position and his movement and where we can find him, of course we can talk about is this the right or wrong place for him, but when things were working and he was scoring that debate wasn't there.

"What is certain s that with these numbers, scoring this amount of goals is impossible to fight with the top teams so we have to maintain the numbers that we have defensively in our organisation and for sure we have to improve our numbers attacking-wise if we want to be challenging and if you want to be consistent in winning football matches.

Quizzed about the extent of midfield ace Thomas Partey's injury, he replied: "We don't know. We have to scan him tomorrow or the day after and see what he felt straight away. Let's wait and see what the magnitude of the injury is."

While speaking to BBC Sport on the international break, he said: "I would rather play tomorrow. I know how hurting they are. My job is to lift them up. I would like to do that tomorrow morning but everyone is on international duty.

"Everyone has to reflect when they're away and come back and not let it happen again."

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