Bukayo Saka has been accused of letting Arsenal down by Nigel De Jong during the humbling 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
The Gunners struggled at the Emirates, with Saka’s own-goal followed by an Ollie Watkins double, leaving Mikel Arteta’s side in bottom half of the table and with as many losses (four) as victories (four) after eight games.
And former Manchester City midfielder De Jong has criticised Saka’s inability to step up and play Villa offside.
“Look how many players were in the box when you compare it to the number of players Villa had in the box [for their first goal],” De Jong said on beIN SPORTS.
“What I also said at half-time was that Saka let the defence down twice because he could easily play offside twice and he’s the last man on that defence as well. Unfortunately, he is at the end of that goal [own goal].”
Arteta reacted angrily to the defeat and insists it is unacceptable given the standard his side are inspiring to reach.
“Not for big teams,” Arteta told Arsenal’s official website. “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.”
