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Steven Gerrard called out “certain individuals” in his Aston Villa team for not believing in the game plan amid the defeat to Arsenal.

The Gunners were much the better team in the first half at Villa Park in Saturday’s Premier League clash. Bukayo Saka subsequently made the visitors’ dominance count by opening the scoring after 30 minutes.

Villa improved in the second half and ended with a barrage on the Arsenal goal.

Ultimately, though, the only Villa shot on target came right at the end and Mikel Arteta’s side held on.

Gerrard told BT Sport after the match: “It was a tough first half because we allowed it to be tough. I thought we were indecisive in a lot of the things we tried to do, I thought our performance lacked belief.

“It wasn’t until half time onwards that we really showed that we could improve and be much better. But at that point you’re chasing it, you’re 1-0 down, you’ve got to take a few gambles.

“We were much better second half, first half we deserved to be behind, we were second best.”

Asked if Villa showed too much respect to top four-chasing Arsenal, Gerrard said: “Yes, individually and collectively we maybe did that. We wanted them to be organised, we wanted them to have the ball in certain areas.”

Gerrard slams lack of Villa belief

He added: “But, we set up today to be aggressive and go to work in our shape and we didn’t.

“We lacked belief in what we were doing and I thought certain individuals lacked belief, so it’s difficult to execute a game plan if not everyone believes in it.

“Second half, we believed in it a lot more. Ok, we went back to front a little bit quicker, we wanted to test the centre-backs, but I think across the board we had more belief. Overall, we can have no complaints.”

BT Sport interviewer Des Kelly then prompted Gerrard on his side’s lack of a shot on target until right at the end. The interview then turned on the reporter, as Gerrard let out his frustrations.

“That’s exactly how I’ve just described the game to you, is it not? Well done for spotting that,” Gerrard said.

Kelly then said that while Villa have made progress since Gerrard’s arrival, his side have still lost to Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and now Arsenal.

Aston Villa progress questions slammed

“Yeah well done Des for recognising that,” the manager said.

“If you asked me that question, I would say the league doesn’t lie and I’d say Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd, West Ham, Wolves – at the moment – are ahead of us. And there’s a reason for that.

“There’s a gap and that’s where we’re striving to be. If we want to take one of those places, we’ve got to be positive. We can’t be indecisive, we’ve got to go and grab it off them, really believe in what we’re doing.

“But I do like the way you work them things out pretty quick.”

Prompted on his “aggressive” nature in the interview, Gerrard replied: “I’ll tell you what I am in the interview, I’m emotional, I care, I don’t like getting beat and I actually thought your questions would be a little bit better, in all honesty.

“No disrespect, I’m not getting personal, but you’ve just said to me there’s a gap to Manchester United, Manchester City etcetera… we know that and you also said we got one shot on target towards the end of the game.

“That’s how I described the game as well.”

Villa return to action after the international break against Wolves.

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