JOEY van den Berg shouldered the blame for gifting Arsenal their opening goal as Reading FC crashed out of the EFL Cup at the Emirates.

The Dutch midfielder was caught in possession just outside his own area allowing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to race through and fire the Gunners ahead in the 33rd minute.

In truth, it was a poor pass from keeper Ali Al Habsi that had put van den Berg in trouble in the first place, an error ruthlessly punished by Arsene Wenger’s Premier League hosts.

Royals had chances to score themselves on the night with Yann Kermorgant, Callum Harriott and Jordan Obita going closest, but Oxlade-Chamberlain’s second 12 minutes from time sent Arsenal into the quarter finals.

And van den Berg conceded it was his own indecisiveness which handed Arsenal the opening goal on a plate.

“They are good but we are not a bad team either,” said the 30-year-old Royal.

“We did it to ourselves, it was a mistake from me and then we were a goal behind and chasing the game.

“I wasn’t sure whether to play it back to Ali in goal or whether to play it to Tyler Blackett.

“When you are doubting what you are doing then it is never a good sign.”

Reading could have avoided the opening goal if Al Habsi had cleared his lines instead of passing to the isolated van den Berg 25 yards out from his own goal.

That only served to invite more pressure from the Arsenal forwards who were quick to take advantage.

However, with boss Jaap Stam keen to see his side play out of defence rather than hoof it forward, van den Berg defended Royals’ approach on the night.

“It’s part of how we want to play but I should never have taken that risk,” he stated.

“I should have kicked the ball out of the stadium or made a different choice than I did.

“It’s a hard lesson.”

Nevertheless, van den Berg is confident Reading will learn from their mistakes as they prepare to return to Championship action and a home clash against Nottingham Forest this Saturday (3pm ko).

“We had a big win at Rotherham last weekend and we need to continue that,” he stressed.

“I think the Arsenal game was a good opportunity for us to learn against a very good  Premier League team.

“I think there are several good points that we can take from our performance on the night, but we all know that the league is the most important competition.

“We don’t feel too negative about Tuesday’s performance so now we need to go again and get a good result on Saturday.”