Roy Keane claims the whole of the Manchester United team must take responsibility for the 3-1 drubbing at Arsenal - and not leave under-fire goalkeeper Fabien Barthez to shoulder the blame.

Keane was quick to close ranks around his goalkeeper and maintained the entire team must up their work-rate if they are to have a say in the outcome of this season's championship.

"It's a bitter disappointment," Keane said. "It's the story so far of our season. The second half was disappointing and it is going to need a lot of hard work before the Chelsea game.

"The easiest way is to criticise Fabien, but we kept kicking it back to him too much anyway, that's what I felt. We have been doing that a lot over the last season and a bit when players should be looking forward.

"Fabien is disappointed about the goals we gave away, but in the overall performance, we lost too many individual battles. It is sad for us to say that. We are paid plenty of money and we have to accept criticism and this season we have been poor. There is no getting away from that.

"We lost a lot of battles out there and that was the most disappointing thing. We made it hard for ourselves like we have been doing all season and we kept coming unstuck.

"The inconsistency is there and one thing we have been over the years, and why we have been successful, is that we have got things out of games when maybe we haven't deserved it.

"We have battled away and that seems to be gone from our game at the moment and it's disappointing. The manager is disappointed, we are all disappointed, it is going to be a long week."

Alex Ferguson's team have now lost four matches in the Premiership and Keane admits they cannot afford to drop many more points and expect to be on top of the pile in May.

"Obviously, we still have a chance, but we can't keep losing league matches."