It sounds to me as if Arsene Wenger is not just complaining about the way that Arsenal fans have been behaving of late, he is actually suggesting that the home crowd at the Emirates and the negative atmosphere they produced was a big factor in the Gunners being knocked out of the FA cup by Watford.
The weekend before had seen us battle back well to rescue a point with a man down in the north London derby away to Spurs and then we battered Hull City in the FA cup replay, so the boss feels that it was a strange time for the home fans to be moaning and putting extra pressure on the players in a game that could have seen us on the way to an amazing FA cup record.
As reported by Metro the Frenchman feels that this crucial part of the season is when the team needs the fans the most. So he is struggling to understand what is going on at the moment and is calling on the fans to put aside their anger and frustration, at least for now.
Wenger said, ‘What hurts me is that at the important moment of the season we played in a sceptical environment.
‘I think after the Tottenham game where we played a very good game with 10 men against 11 and came back to 2-2, I couldn’t understand why – at the moment when you need everyone behind the team – we had to hit that storm.
‘From the media, OK. From our fans? It is a bit more difficult to take.
‘I never complain about critics, especially when they are turned against me. But we have to get the fans behind us with our attitude, and make sure that they stand behind the team until the end of the season.’
Is he right? I can certainly understand the Arsenal fans being fed up and it is hard not to let your feelings show during the passion of a football match, but at the same time I know that is does not help the players when there are grumblings coming from the stands. What do you guys think?