After suffering a disappointing 2-1 defeat away to Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League opener on Wednesday, the Gunners were forced to travel to Maribor in neighbouring Slovenia for a flight back to London because of construction work on the main airport in the Croatian capital.
As a result, Arsenal did not get home until 04:00 local time on Thursday before then having to attend a training session some eight-and-a-half hours later.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is thus upset by the fact that his troops must now take on Premier League champions in Saturday's 12:45 kick-off - but veteran midfielder Arteta says that he and his team-mates can cope with the quick turnaround.
"It’s a big game on Saturday and we have to react very quickly, which we are quite good at," the Spaniard is quoted as saying by The Sun.
"We have done it in the past and I know that Saturday will be a very different game.
"We are all upset with last night’s result and sometimes it’s good when you have disappointment in the body because you find a response.
"Now we have to recover the best we can and start to prepare for Chelsea because we will have only 48 hours after getting back to the training ground from Croatia.
"We will try to develop a positive attitude to take into the next game because we can beat Chelsea."
Arteta made his first appearance in 10 months, as Wenger made six changes in personnel for the trip to Zagreb, but the strategy backfired, with the north Londoners suffering a surprise defeat.
Josip Pivaric opened the scoring with a shot that deflected in off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain before Olivier Giroud saw red for a second bookable offence just before the break.
"We have done it in the past and I know that Saturday will be a very different game.
"We are all upset with last night’s result and sometimes it’s good when you have disappointment in the body because you find a response.
"Now we have to recover the best we can and start to prepare for Chelsea because we will have only 48 hours after getting back to the training ground from Croatia.
"We will try to develop a positive attitude to take into the next game because we can beat Chelsea."
Arteta made his first appearance in 10 months, as Wenger made six changes in personnel for the trip to Zagreb, but the strategy backfired, with the north Londoners suffering a surprise defeat.
Josip Pivaric opened the scoring with a shot that deflected in off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain before Olivier Giroud saw red for a second bookable offence just before the break.
Junior Fernandes doubled Dinamo's advantage and although Theo Walcott pulled a goal back for the visitors, Arsenal are now playing catch-up in Group F, with Bayern Munich having routed Olympiacos 3-0 in Greece on the same night.
However, despite the early setback, Arteta believes Wenger was right to freshen up the team, arguing that the Gunners still should have had more than enough in reserve to overcome a team that had now registered a win in the group stages for nearly 16 years.
"We have so many games coming up and the schedule is so tight that the manager decided to make a couple of changes," the 33-year-old added.
"He has to manage the squad and he always tries to get the best team and the right balance in every game.
"The team we had out there should have been good enough to beat Dinamo Zagreb so we are all disappointed we couldn’t do that.
"We could have been 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes but it became more difficult after we conceded a goal to the first chance they had.
"Even at 1-0 down we still had a chance to get back into the game but Olivier Giroud’s red card changed everything.
"With 10 men you have to take risks and change the system.
"We played with three at the back to try to get back but conceded a sloppy second goal from a set-piece and we couldn’t recover from that.
"Now we know there is no room for error in the Champions League.
"We had the same experience last season when we lost our first group game in Dortmund but still managed to finish second in our group.
"Obviously this result puts more pressure on us but we still expect to qualify."
However, despite the early setback, Arteta believes Wenger was right to freshen up the team, arguing that the Gunners still should have had more than enough in reserve to overcome a team that had now registered a win in the group stages for nearly 16 years.
"We have so many games coming up and the schedule is so tight that the manager decided to make a couple of changes," the 33-year-old added.
"He has to manage the squad and he always tries to get the best team and the right balance in every game.
"The team we had out there should have been good enough to beat Dinamo Zagreb so we are all disappointed we couldn’t do that.
"We could have been 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes but it became more difficult after we conceded a goal to the first chance they had.
"Even at 1-0 down we still had a chance to get back into the game but Olivier Giroud’s red card changed everything.
"With 10 men you have to take risks and change the system.
"We played with three at the back to try to get back but conceded a sloppy second goal from a set-piece and we couldn’t recover from that.
"Now we know there is no room for error in the Champions League.
"We had the same experience last season when we lost our first group game in Dortmund but still managed to finish second in our group.
"Obviously this result puts more pressure on us but we still expect to qualify."
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