Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has bizarrely claimed the club’s movement in the summer transfer window was a success, despite evidence to the contrary.

The Gunners’ CEO sent an email round to Arsenal players and staff, according to the Daily Star, in which he claimed keeping Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil was “a clear statement of our ambition.”

He added that “amid all the hysteria” Arsenal have “once again improved the quality and depth of our squad”. Critics of the email would likely respond by pointing to the early results this season, with Arsenal losing two out of three matches of the Premier League, including a 4-0 battering at Anfield.

Gazidis has attempted to anticipate and respond to this point, saying that the performance was “unacceptable” and “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,” he said in the email, “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.”

Ivan Gazidis is probably not the person Arsenal fans want to hear from right now, after the club failed to bring anyone in after the first month of the transfer window opening. Even despite obvious problem areas of the squad, such issues were not addressed and the quotes made by the CEO will only further enrage supporters.

The clubs backup goalkeepers Wojciech Szczesny and Emi Martinez were sold and loaned out respectively, the backup right-wing-back Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was sold and the back up centre-back Gabriel was sold. All those sales are fine if higher quality replacements are brought in, but no one was signed in any of those positions.

Kolašinac could be given as cover at centre-back, but if that’s the case then Kieran Gibbs’ sale to West Brom hasn’t been accounted for. As well as Kolašinac has started his Arsenal career, he can’t play two positions at once.

It’s the usual stuff that the club has to put out every summer, but until Arsenal show their “quality and depth” on the pitch, most fans won’t be happy to hear any of it.