Arsene Wenger has launched an impassioned defence of Arsenal’s record away to their Premier League rivals as he prepares to take his side to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Arsenal have not won at Chelsea since 2011, and have failed to pick up three points on the road against any of last season’s top six since a 2-0 win at Manchester City in January 2015.
The intervening 13 games have brought a meagre five points, and not a single clean sheet.
Arsenal’s away form has not always been such an Achilles' heel, with Wenger’s side going entire league campaigns without a loss on the road in both 2001-02 and 2003-04 - the latter of which saw them earn their 'Invincible' tag for an unbeaten season.
"If you look at my record you’ll see I played two seasons in the Premier League without losing a game away from home," Wenger said.
"Last year until we lost at Everton we had not lost away the whole year. After that we lost at Man City and that gave us a problem away from home last year.
"But I don’t really believe in that [difference between playing home and away]. The pitch is 105 metres long and 68 metres wide everywhere.
"Never in my life I could accept or understand that it’s different away from home. It’s just a question of how much you want it no matter where you play. It’s a good opportunity to show that we have that quality."
Scrutiny of Arsenal’s away form has been all the greater after their woeful display in last month’s 4-0 loss at Liverpool.
Wenger’s side have bounced back somewhat in the following two games, 3-0 and 3-1 home wins over Bournemouth and Cologne, but Sunday’s visit to Antonio Conte’s champions will provide a far more rigorous examination of Arsenal’s qualities.
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"We had a bad performance at Liverpool, I would never deny it," Wenger conceded. "That should be an even greater motivation for us to turn up with a quality performance on Sunday.
"We do not look too much backwards. We have analysed that well.
"We know that we need to correct what we missed there, I believe it’s [time to] focus on our performance and give 100 per cent commitment."