Arsenal announce loss

The Gunners revealed the after-tax loss - taking into account changes in property and player trading, which are essentially one-offs - for the six months ended 30 November 2010, compared to a 2009 profit of £29.2m.

There was also a significantly reduced profit on player sales of £4m, with no big names having departed, compared to £33.9m the previous year when the coffers were boosted by the sales of of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure to Manchester City.

Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis told the club's official website: "The numbers last year were pushed by property sales and the sales of a couple of big players. This year we don't have those one-offs.

"This is a very young team; the average age against Barcelona (in the Champions League last 16 first leg) was 23 years old. We try to keep them with the team by signing them to long-term contracts. We had investment in that with renewing a number of contracts last summer."

Gazidis was eager to play up the security of the club's financial future on the day after the team suffered a dramatic last defeat to Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final at Wembley, extending their six-year wait for a major trophy.

"We are all desperately disappointed because we were hoping to do better yesterday," Gazidis added.

"The important thing is how we react to this and every setback. But we continue to be in a healthy financial position and the club is run on a self-sustaining basis."