Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey has said the team felt comfortable at Stamford Bridge on Saturday before Gabriel’s red card left them a man down.

The Brazilian defender was controversially sent off while Diego Costa remained on the pitch shortly before half-time, leaving Arsenal with a mountain to climb against last season’s champions.

Before long, the Gunners were also a goal down and a way back into the game looked a long way off, and Ramsey said the side could have managed a really positive result had the playing field stayed even.

“We felt quite comfortable out there,” Ramsey told Arsenal Player after the game. “They haven’t had the best of runs of late and the more the game went on, the more the crowd would have started to turn and moan a bit.”

Nonetheless, the red card did come and it spoiled what had been a well poised contest. Arsène Wenger complained that the side conceded from a set-piece when down a man for the second time in three days, and Ramsey also had something to say on that.

“It’s hard when you go down to 10 men. That set-piece has cost us but we tried our best out there and we paid the price from the sending off in the end.”

The Gunners created very little when down to 10 and even less after Santi Cazorla had been sent off, the game was essentially over when Kurt Zouma headed Chelsea in front.

After a loss in midweek, another defeat feels like a huge setback.

“We’re always going to create opportunities but we’re just disappointed because we had a bad result in midweek in the Champions League,” Ramsey said. “We wanted to get back to winning ways and have a positive game. We were doing that up until the sending off. I’m sure he’ll learn from that.”