After going a goal down early in proceedings, the Blues battled and nearly found a leveller before the break when Enzo hit the post, but after the interval, the Gunners found another level and bossed the London derby.

Speaking after the match, Gallagher was hugely disappointed and frustrated with the performance, apologising to the travelling supporters.

‘We are really upset and disappointed,’ he reflected. ‘It was nowhere near good enough. We just want to say sorry to our fans who came to watch that.

‘It was nowhere near good enough and we will give everything we can to put it right in the next one. We started too slow. There were too many mistakes, it was too lethargic as a collective and we weren’t at it. We have only got ourselves to look at and there is work to be done.’

The Blues’ captain was honest in his assessment, refusing to make any excuses for a lacklustre display in north London.

‘We can’t make any excuses or blame anything,’ Gallagher continued. ‘We just have to look at ourselves as individuals and as a team.

‘We know we can be better than that. We might be tired but that’s still not an excuse. It just wasn’t good enough from everyone today.

‘We are definitely putting the effort in and I know how much it means to the boys. I know it’s been said many times – it’s a very young squad with not much experience as a team in the Premier League.

‘As you’ve seen this season we’ve had a lot of ups and a lot downs as well. We’re still improving and working together as a team to try to get to that next level and today was one of those days where we were nowhere near it.’