Michael Essien admits Chelsea's thumping by Arsenal hurt the players.

Essien wrote in his blog for Chelseafc.com: "I have been in the Premier League over six years and I can't remember seeing such heavy defeats suffered by the top clubs in the league. It is unheard of to have one of these clubs suffer such a big defeat throughout the season, let alone all of us suffering these defeats within the first 10 games.

"If you are a spectator or a neutral supporter not connected to any of the top clubs you will definitely have loved all the games and will be wishing for more but for those of us connected to these heavy defeats it's not a very pleasant experience.

"Every player crosses the white line and always wants to give his all so to come away with such a big loss is always hard to take. You almost want to play another game as soon as possible to get it out of your system and I can assure all Chelsea fans that we will be back to winning ways in the league soon."