The Gunners boss didn't hold back with his assessment of Saturday's defeat.
Arteta
Mikel Arteta bemoaned his side's performance (Image: Sky Sports)
Mikel Arteta claimed his Arsenal players lacked respect during the 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Saturday afternoon. It's the Gunners' first defeat of any kind across all competitions, with Arteta bemoaning his side's performance on the south coast.
It started in the first half, when Pascal Gross and Charalampos Kostoulas scored what felt like identical long-range efforts to give Brighton a 2-0 lead at the break. Arsenal fans would've been disappointed with the reaction, and it was in fact the hosts who pressed home their advantage, with Chema Andres heading in a third midway through the second half.
Reacting to the showing, he remarked: "Extremely disappointed. But first of all we have to congratulate Brighton, they deserved it. They were the better team and from our side there were certain basics in football that we didn't.
"Winning the first ball. They put us in a really difficult place. The amount of technical errors. We didn't respect any principle of play. We had moments of dominance and control and we opened them up, we didn't take those chances."
He continued: "Well the first one is that Brighton were really good. The timing was better than us. What we've done the way we competed [this season] has been remarkable. But this is a big lesson."