Arteta apologises for 'unacceptable' Arsenal showing

Mikel Arteta has apologised to Arsenal's supporters for his team's "unacceptable" performance in the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. 

The Gunners' top-four hopes took a significant dent at Palace, a result which leaves Tottenham in fourth place after the Premier League weekend.

The Gunners do have a game in hand on their north London rivals but this was an out-of-character performance from Arteta's side, as first-half goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew and a second-half Wilfried Zaha penalty handed fantastic Palace the points.

Arteta criticised his team's performance, admitting they did not compete physically with Palace.

He told Sky Sports: "Congratulations to Palace for the game they played but we made it impossible for ourselves with the way we competed.

You have to be physical and run and then you earn the right to play. We were really inconsistent on the ball and that is unacceptable.

We were poor, especially in the first half. I apologise to our supporters. We didn't have the presence today or the composure to dominate the situation so that is what I'm most annoyed with. Some days you are not there and you are late all the time. They got on top of it and had a good atmosphere and we could not get out.