Ivan Gazidis launched an aggressive defence of Arsenal’s transfer policy at a stormy shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, in which he said the club had consistently over-performed when compared with their rivals over recent seasons.

The chief executive was heckled at times from the floor – as was the chairman, Sir Chips Keswick – and when what passed for an open Q&A session was abruptly halted and the meeting declared over, there were boos and a slow handclap.

Gazidis referenced a £200m spend on transfer fees in the last three years and he said the club ought to be judged by “objective metrics” – primarily, an equation that set Premier League points against expenditure. On that basis, he suggested Arsenal would come out on top of the pile.

Gazidis also attacked the media for misleading supporters in terms of transfers and, in turn, “inflaming emotions” and “driving opinions and narratives”. He insisted, for example, that the club had never wanted to sell Shkodran Mustafi in August, even though there was zero attempt by them to deny the story at the time. In the end, the £35m defender stayed put.

“There are many agendas at play and many stories during a transfer window – only a fraction of which are accurate,” Gazidis said. “In that environment, it becomes very difficult to see clearly through the noise. Fortunately, there is one very accurate and objective way to assess how well and how consistently clubs perform in this area [transfers] over time.

“This method is accurate enough to be the industry standard way to analyse the efficiency of spending of football clubs. It is very simply to compare team performance by a series of objective metrics, usually league position or points against expenditure on transfers.

“No club has a perfect record every year under this scrutiny but Arsenal has probably been, of the big clubs certainly, the most consistently over-performing team over time. That is despite the criticism we get and the emotion here in the room and despite some very loud subjective narratives and a great deal of inaccurate information. In fact, on an objective basis, we perform very well and have over a long period of time.”

Gazidis was asked in one of the pre-submitted questions from shareholders about the contractual situations of Alexis Sánchez and Mesut Özil. Both have entered the final seasons on their deals. Arsenal turned down a £60m offer from Manchester City for Sánchez at the end of August, as they were unable to sign a replacement for him, while there were no serious bids for Özil.

Gazidis recalled the decision to sell Robin van Persie to Manchester United for £24m in 2012, when the striker had one year to run on this contract – and the outcry that followed.

“We were told then that we were financially motivated and not focused on football,” Gazidis said. “This summer, with stronger underlying financials, we have taken a different tack. The decisions on Alexis and Mesut Özil are certainly not decisions that fit the narrative that we put money first. We have taken that approach to give the club the best possible chance to compete for trophies this season.

“You don’t always have a choice of where you sell a player – nor do you control whether a player extends with you or what demands their agent makes. None of this information is going to be in the public domain. Those on the outside don’t know the dynamics, don’t know the demands being made, don’t know the constraints.

“It’s quite possible that, in retrospect, people may say that some of the decisions we have made this summer prove to be wrong or foolhardy. We need to be humble, continue to learn and continue to evolve our thinking and our approach. But it’s also absolutely clear that the decisions we’ve made don’t fit the narrative from some that we are financially motivated.”