[monks data]

Attendance: 40,491

Premier League | Gameweek 2

Aug 18, 2018 at 5.30pm UK

Chelsea
3-2
Arsenal

Pedro (9'), Morata (20'), Alonso (81')

FT(HT: 2-2)

Mkhitaryan (37'), Iwobi (41')

Alex Iwobi: 'Arsenal players fought hard for Unai Emery'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 18 August 2018

Iwobi: 'Arsenal players fought for Emery'

Arsenal attacker Alex Iwobi insists that he and his teammates "fought hard" for new manager Unai Emery in their 3-2 loss to London rivals Chelsea.

Alex Iwobi has urged Arsenal supporters to show patience with new boss Unai Emery following back-to-back defeats to begin his Emirates Stadium tenure.

The Gunners followed up last weekend's 2-0 home loss against champions Manchester City with a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.

Arsenal battled back from a couple of goals down to level up the match at 2-2 before the interval, but they were second best after the restart and fell to a late Marcos Alonso strike.

Iwobi insists that he and his teammates gave their all for Emery, though, and has acknowledged that it will take time before the hard work begins to show.

"We started shaky. I don't know why - maybe we didn't know what to do, but we picked ourselves up and got going," he told BT Sport. "Unfortunately we weren't able to take all our chances.

"We were on a high at half time. The message [from Emery] was to keep it going, keep our head and don't lose ourselves. We fought hard for him.

"We enjoy training, everyone is buying into his ideas. It all takes time, a new manager, a new system and the fans and players know that."

Emery is the first Arsenal manager to lose his first two games since Steve Burtenshaw, who lost his first three in charge as caretaker in March/April 1986.