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London - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has demanded a response from his side at home to Swansea on Tuesday after his 1 000th game in charge of the Gunners ended in a humiliating 6-0 defeat by English Premiership leaders Chelsea.
What should have been a celebration for the Frenchman turned into a day to forget at Stamford Bridge as Arsenal suffered their latest collapse away to their title rivals after losing losing 5-1 at Liverpool and 6-3 at Manchester City earlier this season.
"The Premier League is difficult and as soon as you drop your standards a little bit you are of course in danger," Wenger told the in-house Arsenal Media channel on Monday after cancelling his pre-match press conference.
"It happens to many clubs because the fight for the relegation is very hard.
"The fight at the top is very, very hard and that's why every game has its own difficulties that you have to deal with."
Arsenal were 3-0 down come just the 17th minute against Chelsea and were a man down too after Kieran Gibbs was sent-off for a handball on the line in fact committed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain -- a decision the Gunners hope to get overturned prior to the Swansea match.
"We are intelligent enough and care enough about the club to, of course, be disappointed with our performance," Wenger said.
"I believe Man City was different, (but) Liverpool, yes.
"The common thing was that it was a 12:45 (GMT) game and twice we were caught at the start of the game.
"We think about that and at the moment there is no rational explanation other than the quality of our opponents and that we were caught at the start of the game.
"Why? We don't really know."
Saturday's defeat left Arsenal in fourth place, seven points behind Chelsea but with a game in hand.
