PSV suffered two damaging defeats to Go Ahead Eagles last week, first going down in the semi-finals of the KNVB Beker before losing to them in the Eredivisie at the weekend.

That second loss left them eight points adrift of league leader Ajax.

Perisic was particularly cutting of the team's lack of unity across its recent showings.

"We are not a team," Perisic, who scored as PSV overcame Juventus in the play-offs to reach the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 last month, said.

"We are not doing well. We should be more of a team, which we are not now. We are not fighting for each other and that makes me angry.

"We need to change that quickly. We need to give everything until the end of the season, because it is far from over."

Persic said the players had discussed the problem as their slump in domestic form contrasted with progress in Europe.

"Why are we not a team? We talked about that. We create enough chances and score enough, but without the ball we need to do better. We need to fight and run for each other," the veteran campaigner added.

Coach Peter Bosz said: “There are a lot of small things that are now preventing you from winning, but those small things are important."

The pre-match press conference saw both men dealing with a majority of questions about PSV’s domestic form rather than its prospects against Arsenal, which it hosts in the first leg at Philips Stadion this week.

"I understand that PSV's decline is now bigger news than the match we will play against Arsenal tomorrow, but that's a great shame for football fans," Bosz said.

"We are among the best 16 in Europe. It is impressive that we are here."

Arsenal has faced PSV twice previously in the UEFA Champions League, beating it 4-0 at home and drawing 1-1 away in last season's group stage.

The Gunners have only lost one of their past 14 games against Dutch sides in the UEFA Champions League, but that defeat did come against PSV in 2007.