Arsenal's chief executive Ivan Gazidis has claimed that the club "improved" their squad during the summer transfer window.

The Gunners broke their transfer record with the £46.5m capture of striker Alexandre Lacazette, but missed out on a number of top targets including Thomas Lemar, Kylian Mbappe, Julian Draxler and Virgil van Dijk.

The club also sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to rivals Liverpool, days after their damning 4-0 defeat to the Reds, while seeing Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil enter the final 12 months of their current contracts without finding replacements or selling them on.

In an email to staff published by the Daily Star, Gazidis said that he wanted "to give some perspective on the transfer window amid all the hysteria", adding: "At the end of the window, reviewing all activity, we have once again improved the quality and depth of our squad.

"Everything is coloured by results... a positive performance at Liverpool would have coloured this transfer window very differently.

"We have had a poor start to the season but have the quality to turn it around and turn around performances and compete for the title. It is time to get back to what it is all about, the football.

"The manager and players know that the performance at Anfield was not good enough and they will be focused to put that right after the international break."

On the decision not to sell on Sanchez and Ozil, Gazidis said that it demonstrated "a clear statement of our ambitions and should help refute suggestions we are just about the money. That is simply nonsense."

Earlier today Wenger called upon Gunners fans to "be behind" the team despite their poor start to the season.