Dean Smith felt Aston Villa’s first half showing at Arsenal was unacceptable.
The head coach was dismayed that the hosts outmuscled his side as they built up a two-goal lead at half-time.
And after the game, which Villa lost 3-1 despite improving in the second half, Smith gave an honest assessment of his team’s display.
He said: “The game was thrown away in the first half with as poor a performance as it was against Watford in the first game of the season.
“It’s not very often my team gets dominated physically, but they dominated us physically in the first half of the game today.
“That’s not acceptable and the players were told that at half-time. I can accept second half performances like that, but certainly not the first half. That made it a real tough game for us.”
Defeat at Emirates Stadium was the club’s third consecutive loss in the Premier League, following games against Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves.
Smith is desperate to stop the run when West Ham United visit Villa Park next weekend.
He said: “We have to go again because it hurts losing three games on the spin. It hurts losing one game in this league.
“We’ve had the bizarre five minutes against Wolves when we were comfortable and we’ve followed that up with today.
“It hurts and I hope it hurts the players. We spoke in the dressing room - or I did – at length, and hopefully now we get a reaction this weekend and we can get back to winning ways.”