Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon said the Serie A holder must stop blaming referees and start to take responsibility after its loss to Sassuolo.

Nicola Sansone scored a 20th-minute free-kick as Sassuolo triumphed 1-0 and condemned stuttering champion to its fourth defeat of the season.

Juve had defender Giorgio Chiellini sent off for a second bookable offence six minutes prior to half-time, but Buffon refused to point the finger at referee Andrea Gervasoni after the visitor slumped to a third away loss of the campaign.

"Our first-half display was unacceptable. If we'd been a provincial side, I might have been satisfied with the way we played over 50 minutes with 10 men," the Italy international goalkeeper said.

"But given our objectives here at Juventus, we return home extremely disappointed.

"Referees do not make mistakes on purpose and so I’m not accepting the red card as an excuse.

"It's very simple, if you don't win any of your 50-50s or aerial battles and you can't string together three passes, then that's no recipe for success."

Juventus languishes in 12th position in the Serie A standings after 10 rounds, 11 points adrift of leader Roma.