Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is not someone who easily expresses his disappointment in his players publicly. However after the abject performance against Norwich City, the Frenchman was left with no choice.
Arsenal had easily their poorest game of the season so far - falling to a Grant Holt goal and with it going a massive ten points behind English Premier League leaders Chelsea.
"You have to give credit to Norwich today," a visibly disappointed Wenger said. "They played well, were completely committed and they deserved the win. Maybe we underrated the difficulty we would face.
"But the Premier League is the Premier League. If you are not ready for the fight then you will always have bad surprises. There is a big difference between the amount of possession we had and the amount of chances we created.
"That is down to the fact that Norwich defended well and we did not create a lot.
"It was a disappointing performance on our side."
Holt was the first one to react to a save from Vito Mannone, with the Arsenal defenders caught napping and the goalkeeper failing to direct his save from the danger area. However, Wenger refused to blame a particular individual, instead focusing on the disappointing collective effort.
"We do not blame anybody, we many made mistakes today," he added. "We have to put that performance behind us, realise that is not good enough and come out on Wednesday with a different performance.
"The attitude of the team has been excellent but that was not at the level of what we have produced until now. It was the first time of the season we were way below par. And we were well below today."
Wenger also refused to blame the international break on his side's poor performance, even if a few of the Gunners' players looked a little jaded. "It is not an excuse," he said. "We have to deal with that. You could say we have better players but there is only one way to show that - on the football pitch."
On the injuries front, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had to be taken off after being brought on as a substitute and the talented youngster will now miss Arsenal's Champions League game Wednesday against Schalke. "It was a kick on his hip," he said. "It is not long-term. But he will be out for Wednesday.
Wenger elaborated on the decision to not use Jack Wilshere for the game, despite putting him on the substitute's bench.
"We have to be conscious he has not played for 14 months," he added. "I would have brought him on if the game had allowed it today but it was too intense. He will play on Monday with the reserves and then we will see where we go from there. He needs games."
Meanwhile, the Arsenal manager also confirmed Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott would miss the Champions League encounter, after they were ruled out of the Norwich game as well.
