England were accused of arrogance after losing their Ashes opener to Australia, but Ben Stokes believes that is "too far".

England came under heavy scrutiny after their crushing defeat to Australia last week, losing inside two days.

The eight-wicket victory was the first Ashes Test to finish in that time since the Aussies' 10-wicket win at Trent Bridge in May 1921.

Following that match, England opted not to send any of their XI to play in an England Lions match against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra.

Former Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson has since called England "arrogant" and "cocky Poms" who are at risk of "serious embarrassment", a claim which Stokes disputed.

"You can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want," Stokes told BBC Sport.

"We didn't have the Test match that we wanted to.

"Arrogant might be a little bit too far, but that's OK. We'll take the rough with the smooth. I'd rather words like 'rubbish', but 'arrogant', I'm not so sure about that."

A disappointing start to the series.

We're beaten in Perth. pic.twitter.com/gsmjButBLy

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) November 22, 2025

England had been in a strong position at lunch on day two in Perth before suffering the disappointing loss just a few hours later.

But with the second Test set to begin on December 4, Stokes remains optimistic while acknowledging that the players feel the same pain as the fans.

"It's a results-based job that we're in. We love our fans, and we know we've got an incredible fanbase who come out here and support us," he said.

"They want to see us win, we want to win, we're absolutely desperate. They're absolutely desperate. We're all on the same wavelength.

"We know that there'll be a lot of disappointed fans in England after that first defeat. But it's a five-game series, we've got four games to go.

"We've lost the first one - we're absolutely desperate to come home with that goal from before we even started the series, which is to win the Ashes."

England had their first of five training sessions prior to the second Test on Saturday, though Mark Wood was not present as he is reportedly set to miss out with a knee injury.