How can we scream at our players for giving up before the game has finished when the ground is less than half full by the time the final whistle goes? People were leaving the ground on Sunday 15 minutes before time. 15 MINUTES!!! There was a steady of stream of people leaving as soon as there was 10 minutes left. I know it’s a pain in the arse queuing for the tube after a game but come on people

Afternoon Gooners,

Ok, first of all I will point out that I know I will get a load of abuse for this next blog and that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Here’s mine.

I don’t live in London so usually average about 6 – 8 games a year at the Emirates and I feel privileged every time I am there. This year – more towards the end – I have witnessed something that quite honestly annoys the hell out of me and whilst at the Villa game on Sunday this ‘thing’ reached it’s pinnacle. This ‘thing’ annoys me more than Wenger’s ‘reluctance’ to spend, more than our rate of injuries, more than more than our trophy drought and more than the press’ opinion of the over hyped grassmonkey Gareth Bale…… OK, maybe not that much, but still quite a lot.

This ‘thing’ that has annoyed me is all around the stadium, in every corner, on every level, it’s us, the fans. OK, I’ll rephrase that it’s SOME fans, a small minority but the number in this group is growing. The attitude that seems to be slowly filling our stadium is worrying to say the least and it shows no sign of stopping.

I know that supporting a football club is tough, it’s full of more disappointments than championships but before we come crashing down on the players for not being good enough, losing faith, lacking effort, having the wrong attitude and seemingly giving up before the game has finished  we need to take a good long hard look at ourselves.

I will use the Villa game as my example for these arguments. Can we really slate our players for lacking effort when the crowd can’t pull together more than a dozen verses of ‘We love you Arsenal’ and about the same number of ‘Arsenal, Arsenal’ chants during the entire game. The away fans have put us to shame on every occasion I’ve attended this year and from talking to other fans, it’s the norm. We outnumber them 19/1 how are they consistently so much louder than us?

How can we accuse our players of not being good enough when we can’t show our support for them during a game? It took less than five minutes of the game for the crowd around me to go crazy shouting abuse, and I mean proper abuse, when a player misplaced a pass. Surely we have more patience than that….. don’t we?

How can we scream at our players for giving up before the game has finished when the ground is less than half full by the time the final whistle goes? People were leaving the ground on Sunday 15 minutes before time. 15 MINUTES!!! There was a steady of stream of people leaving as soon as there was 10 minutes left. I know it’s a pain in the arse queuing for the tube after a game but come on people, seriously, don’t tell the players they’re useless for giving up before the final whistle then leave 10 minutes before the final whistle! Here is a picture I took of a corner of the stand just after the full time whistle went:

Lets not also forget that the players were participating in a lap of appreciation after the game. If you were in Cesc Fabregas’ boots at the final home game of the season and this is the crowd applauding you then why on God’s green Earth would you not want to go to Barca? If he leaves I guarantee part of it will be because he feels let down by the support (Although he’d never say it publicly). Even before the game the amount of tickets still available was astonishing, especially for the last game of the season.

Finally, we cannot abuse players about attitude when half way through the second half we were singing “six percent, your having a laugh” in reference to next years price raise. FFS people, people are moaning about losing the values of our club, one of our biggest values has always been class, Sunday’s chants were far from classy, now I don’t like the raise either but there is a time and a place like the Q&A coming up or even during the marches/protests that took place before the game (although I didn’t witness any). During the game surely our job as the team’s 12th man is to support the team. We have the best away record in the league this year and one of the worst home records of recent history, there has to be a reason for that.

Now again, I want to point out that this rant does not apply to all fans, but the number is growing rapidly and If we want the team to succeed we need to help them do it by showing support in our own stadium rather than looking for the first excuse to slate everybody.

Arsenal is our club and we should support our club through thick or thin, in an over dramatic comparison, if your child was under performing would you continually remind them of their faults and shout abuse at them or would you support them and try to bring the best out of them? If Arsenal is still a family then why do the same rules not apply? I am not saying that our players have been faultless because we all know they haven’t but just like our stars, we need to look at our own performance to see where we can improve.

I want to end on a good note though, as those who know me know I am a very positive fan. My faith in Gooners was somewhat restored by the 25’000 or so that did stay behind after the game and applauded the players. Even after the disappointment of this season and the extreme disappointment of the Villa game itself, Gooners saluted our players and even managed a rendition of ‘We love you Arsenal’ showing that our love for our club will prevail all.

We have one last game to get through this season and now face the very real possibility of finishing fourth so for those going to the Fulham game I’m sure as always our away support will be superb but for everyone else lets take the summer to think about why we love Arsenal and come back next year and prove ourselves as the best fans in the country.

Goonerfish

Mean Lean’s Response

There certainly seems to be a different vibe and atmosphere around the Emirates this season. I can think of many games where the atmosphere was top class. Our home game against Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United and especially Barcelona. I have no doubt that our fans contributed to some of those results.

I was watching back the Barcelona game a couple of days ago and what struck me was the response to David Villa’s goal. As he was running away celebrating the crowd started roaring ‘ARSENAL! ARSENAL! ARSENAL!’ it gave me goose bumps. I do not remember that at the time of watching it live and the players responded.

The players appear not to be motivated against the lesser sides at the Emirates and the crowd have certainly mirrored that.

If the fans could replicate the atmosphere of the big nights in every game then I am 100% sure that our home record would not be as bad as it has been this season. At times it can be a cauldron and at other times it feels like a poison.

It is very much a catch-22. The fans want the players to produce so they can support whilst the players want support so they can produce. Something has to give.

I hope for a double dose of improvement next season.