Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper ripped into his players after they were humiliated by Arsenal.
The promoted Premier League side were dealt a harsh lesson at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Despite only being 1-0 down at half time, Cooper’s team managed to fall apart and lose 5-0 by the final whistle.
“We don’t just have to take that on the chin – we have to deal with it,” said the Forest boss to reporters post-game.
“We fell way short today in terms of competing. Of course we could have played really well here and not go anything out of the game. It was always going to be a tough game.
“But in competitive sport, the bare minimum you have to do is to stand up and be counted and fight and be hard to beat. And we just didn’t do that at the start of the game.
“The start of the second half, we were nowhere near competitive enough. I can’t think of tackles, or even fouls, that can happen when you compete and even bookings.
“Players running past us, one-twos etc, in the end, if you are not going to do that, particularly at this level you are going to get hurt.
“It is frustrating because it is something we have made good steps on in the last few weeks.
“But to take more than a step backward in that part of the game today is more than frustrating and it ended up costing us.”
