We were punished, says Wenger after Liverpool humiliation

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger could not pinpoint the reason behind his team's 4-0 drubbing by Liverpool at Anfield as the London club sunk to its worst defeat in the English Premier League.

A disconsolate Wenger said,"Given our first two games, our performances were quite good, but today the performance was not acceptable at that level."

"I think from the first minute to the last minute we were not at the level requested for such a game," he added.

Wenger has been under fire from the Arsenal board who want the club to at least finish in the top-3 so that the beleaguered London giants can remain in the lucrative European Championships but the abject performance at Anfield has clouded the club's hope to remain in Europe early in the season.

"Not physically, not technically, not mentally and we were punished. That's basically it," Wenger said.

"Of course, you can analyse the chances we gave away, but I just think overall the performance was not at the requested level."

Arsenal who finished second best to Leicester City last season lagging by 10 points failed in almost every department of the game on Sunday against Liverpool.

"Last season I said that after 30 games. Now we have played three games. We have played one home game and two away games. The result is a consequence of our performance," he said.

"We were not good enough," Wenger felt.