Following successive 2 – 0 defeats to Brentford and Chelsea in the opening two rounds of the 2021/22 premier league season, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admitted they were in a “difficult and unprecedented situation”.

Arsenal were booed by the fans at the end of the game in front of their biggest crowd in 533 days, a match saw Romelulu Lukaku score on his second Chelsea debut as the Belgian marked his return to England with the Blues opening goal on 15 minutes.

Spaniard Arteta has overseen the Gunners’ worst start to a season, with no point and no goals scored from their first two games.

“I don’t think the club in their history have faced something like this,” said Arteta.

“We have to face the challenge. The league or table is not decided in August. The worst thing you can do is throw in the towel. We certainly are not going to do that.

“You have to understand the situation we have. We are missing nine players, and it is difficult. It is not just nine players – they are some big, big players.

“There are a lot of positives. Five players who are 19 or 20 years old playing at this level for the first time – that will have a positive impact but at the moment it is difficult.

“I don’t like to feel sorry for myself. I think everyone can see at the moment we don’t have the squad that we want and it seems to be more difficult by the day.”

“The crowd were right behind the team from the beginning,” he said. “When you are losing you cannot expect them to be happy. They have given all the support they could. When we don’t win, they have to show that and that is natural.”

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