Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker had some strong criticism for the group of players who were handed a start by Arsene Wenger on Sunday.

The Gunners traveled to Nottingham Forest with hopes of securing a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup and defending the trophy they won last season.

However, a forgettable performance saw Arsenal lose 4-2 to the lower division outfit and bow out at this stage of the competition for the first time under Wenger.

As a result, skipper Mertesacker showed some brutal honesty at full-time, lashing out at the rest of team for not justifying being selected.

“You couldn’t see that we really wanted to defend it,” Mertesacker said

“This round is always the toughest. You face a Championship side away and you need to be ready but for the majority of the game, we were not.”

“The manager made a lot of changes, gave a lot of trust to players who haven’t played a lot recently and I don’t think anybody justified their selection today,” Mertesacker added.

“That sums it up I think. In the second half there was a little bit more spirit from ourselves, but in the duels you could see that they out-battled us.”

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