Arsenal below standards in ´painful´ defeat to Villa, says Arteta

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal were below their usual standards in their “painful” defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League.

The Gunners looked to be heading for a draw when Leandro Trossard cancelled out Matty Cash’s opener, but Emiliano Buendia scored deep into stoppage time to secure the win for Unai Emery’s side.

At 94:03, Buendia’s strike for Villa was the second-latest winning goal scored against Arsenal on record (since 2006-07) in the Premier League after Neal Maupay for Brighton in June 2020 (94:26).

Arsenal have lost six Premier League games against Villa under Arteta, their second-most against an opponent under the Spaniard (seven versus Manchester City).

Although Arteta could not fault the effort put in by his players, he felt their overall quality was far from their best.

“We have to focus on ourselves and certain standards that today, particularly individually, we didn’t reach,” Arteta told TNT Sports.

Full-time at Villa Park.

Attention turns to Wednesday night in the Champions League. pic.twitter.com/c1asCqUc9X

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 6, 2025

“The effort was absolutely there. We have to use that pain to go again. That’s football.

“The consistency levels we have shown with everything that’s happened with us has been incredible.

“We didn’t have the dominance; we allowed open spaces. We gave two balls away that could have cost us the game before the actual goal.

“And then we don’t score the chance when Declan [Rice] puts the ball across to Noni [Madueke] and Viktor [Gyokeres]. We don’t score, goal-kick long, second ball, clear the ball, an individual action, a lot of chaos in the box, and you end up losing it. So it is painful.”

Arsenal face Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday before hosting Wolves in their next league game on the weekend.