slammed three stars after their ‘shocking’ defeat to and said the setback would ‘disappoint and worry’ Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
Arteta was forced to apologise for Arsenal’s performance in their , insisting the display was not good enough for the Emirates club.
Arsenal were looking to move back into the top four above north London rivals Tottenham but were outplayed by Crystal Palace, managed by Gunners hero Patrick Vieira.
Jean-Philippe Mateta diverted a simple header to give the Eagles the lead after 16 minutes and Palace doubled their advantage through Jordan Ayew, who got away from Gabriel and Nuno Tavares to slot past Aaron Ramsdale.
Arsenal looked to rally after half-time but were unable to get back into the game and Wilfried Zaha won and then scored a penalty to secure Palace’s impressive win.
‘They fell short, they were poor in all aspects of their game,’ Dixon told Premier League productions following Arsenal’s defeat.
‘They’ve underperformed at times this season and still got results but tonight they were outplayed and were really poor. It all fell together in the wrong way.
‘Mikel Arteta has some serious chats to have with the players because it wasn’t good enough. They were so poor in that first-half and Arteta will be disappointed and worried about that.’
Analysing the goals, Dixon – who made more than 600 appearances for Arsenal, winning two Premier League titles and three FA Cups – added: ‘Look at Ben White’s position [for Palace’s opener]. He’s following Mateta, then all of a sudden he goes towards the ball and leaves him.
‘Mateta then has a free header inside the six-yard box. It can’t happen. Stay with your man! Things like that tell me they’re not switched on.
‘It’s one of the balls in where you say, “Oh, Gabriel has made a mistake there”. He’s got to win the ball. The defending is absolutely shocking.
‘The back four are in a decent position [for the second goal]. As soon as Ayew starts to make his run inside, Tavares has to step into him, don’t step back.
‘But he steps back, Tavares. He doesn’t do the right thing and drops too deep, which just enables Ayew to run into the gap.
‘Then Gabriel has to win it. If you are the last line of defence, you have to be 100% sure you are going to win the ball, he doesn’t and is out of position. Again, it’s poor.’
While Arsenal failed to move back above Spurs into the top-four, they still have a game in hand over their arch-rivals and travel across north London to face Antonio Conte’s side next month.
Reacting to his side’s defeat in south London, Arteta said: ‘It is time to accept the criticism, put your hand up and apologise because this performance was not good enough for this club, but then react.
‘From the beginning we were not at the races. When you come here you have to compete, you have to win duels and second balls and be aggressive and we were none of those.’
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