Match Reaction vs Stoke City (away)

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Effectively, I bet yes.

No it's still going ahead. People will either choose to boycott or they won't

How many will boycott and whether they would have boycotted if we hadn't won the last three games is like i say just a matter of supposition.

[Marc Overmars]

The game is on general sale tomorrow so I don't think there will be much of a protest anyway, I can't imagine those who don't often get a chance to go will waste their experience by protesting.

Any kind of protest will as usual be reduced to a few hundred people with little signs, a portion that are ambivalent and another who are so easily offended they will chant 'one Arsene Wenger'.

[Power n Glory]

Let's look at it in a practical sense.

A couple of weeks back Le Grove was suggesting the Sunderland game would be a good target for fan protest, and gave a bunch of reasons why. A good plan, well reasoned, I thought.

Tomorrow the Sunderland game arrives. What should the fans do? Well, they should still boycott it, for all the reasons that existed before we grabbed a few wins and for all the same reasons that still exist and have not gone away.

But after these few wins what will happen? What are we going to see? That's not to suggest a boycott was a certainty anyway. We've already seen how lame so many of the fans are. No matter how badly you abuse them the wimps roll over and spread their arse cheeks.

It would be great if tomorrow's game turned into a sea of protest. And it would be right too. It'll be all smiles though, I bet, as we put mighty Sunderland to the sword.

And if we somehow manage to get a result against the chavs, you wait and see. All will be forgiven and forgotten and the giant reset button will be pressed and off we go again.

Best part of the Stoke game was the plane and the banner. Think planes and banners are stupid in general, but it seemed to be the only reminder that this guy has to go if this club stands any chance of doing more than wallpapering foundational cracks.

Is the protest tomorrow? Ok, that makes sense. I won't go.

[Niall_Quinn]

I definitely think you're full of shit

You are basing this opinion because fans aren't like you, and P n G mentions the Le Grove blogger you remind me of the term he coins "grief porn". I don't think bad results annoy you, they seem to be your sustenance. For fans who go week in, week out however maybe just maybe they don't get high on the same misery as you do and just want to see a good game of football and be able to suspend for a few hours the bigger context.

Football is a form of escapism after all, this idea that you need to reaffirm with every sentence that you want Wenger to go or somehow you are perpetuating the cycle is the kind of nonsense that only an armchair fan could come out with.

I think the boycott of the Sunderland game is a good idea, and you have nothing but pure supposition to suggest that people won't go along with it just because of what happened on Saturday

An armchair fan like Mr DT, for example? Love him or loathe him, he was there with his banner when the spittle was raining down. And he was there with his predictions too. We were going to win the league at one point, if you recall? It's hard to fathom the fans that seriously thought that. There's escapism, which is fair enough, but outright fantasy is too much.

Under it all, I think we all know what this club and this team is capable of if pushed to the limits that should be a natural benchmark in competitive sport. That's where the fury comes from. Knowing that the people in which huge trust and treasure island resources have been poured into can't push themselves to the same degree as a fan who saves his pennies and jumps in the car for his 20th road trip. It's supposed to be a partnership but it's one-sided as things stand and when you add the obnoxious arrogance of a character like Wenger on top then sure, spitting back at him is highly understandable.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The game is on general sale tomorrow so I don't think there will be much of a protest anyway, I can't imagine those who don't often get a chance to go will waste their experience by protesting.

Any kind of protest will as usual be reduced to a few hundred people with little signs, a portion that are ambivalent and another who are so easily offended they will chant 'one Arsene Wenger'.

The protest will be in the non attendance

http://www.onlinegooner.com/article....4#.WRnI13rc1Fs

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

An armchair fan like Mr DT, for example? Love him or loathe him, he was there with his banner when the spittle was raining down. And he was there with his predictions too. We were going to win the league at one point, if you recall? It's hard to fathom the fans that seriously thought that. There's escapism, which is fair enough, but outright fantasy is too much.

Under it all, I think we all know what this club and this team is capable of if pushed to the limits that should be a natural benchmark in competitive sport. That's where the fury comes from. Knowing that the people in which huge trust and treasure island resources have been poured into can't push themselves to the same degree as a fan who saves his pennies and jumps in the car for his 20th road trip. It's supposed to be a partnership but it's one-sided as things stand and when you add the obnoxious arrogance of a character like Wenger on top then sure, spitting back at him is highly understandable.

DT is still able to enjoy games where we win even though he is probably the poster boy of the Wenger Out faction.

He is not telling anyone they shouldn't celebrate when we win.

[Marc Overmars]

The protest will be in the non attendance

http://www.onlinegooner.com/article....4#.WRnI13rc1Fs

Well, hopefully it happens to the extent that it gets noticed. I would love to see a half empty stadium.

However it's not going to hurt the club where it really matters - financially.

[Niall_Quinn]

No it's still going ahead. People will either choose to boycott or they won't

How many will boycott and whether they would have boycotted if we hadn't won the last three games is like i say just a matter of supposition.

How can it be anything other than supposition? That's the whole thrust of the debate. Have these meaningless wins amounting to our biggest failure to date under Wenger had an impact on the fans and their attitude to Wenger? I'd say, if you asked them if they want Wenger to stay or go, most will still say go. But if it's just a self held opinion that's never acted on then there's no real point having that opinion in the first place. Action is what it takes, ranging from ongoing criticism on social platforms all the way through to direct protest in the stadium.

By the way, a huge chunk of revenue comes from those "armchair" fans these days, far more than comes from the bums on stadium seats. So their protest is just as valid and potentially far more effective. And some of those fans don't want to be in an armchair, but the club priced them out of the stadium.

This is a crunch run-in. Not because of the results and most certainly not because of some cup. If we emerge from this season with more fans tolerant of 2 years more for Wenger than hell bent against it then that's how it's going to be. The anti-Wenger lot will just have to accept it and, I assume, find some other sport to engage them. Because if Wenger somehow finds a way to stay at this club after such an unbroken run of failure the there's no place for fans who want more from the sport than a switch on, consume, switch off experience. Arsenal will be dead as a football club.

[Niall_Quinn]

DT is still able to enjoy games where we win even though he is probably the poster boy of the Wenger Out faction.

He is not telling anyone they shouldn't celebrate when we win.

Who's suggesting that?

Even here on GW in that match thread, everyone was chuffed with a nice bit of orc slaughter. Except PnG but that was down to retarded Wenger and the team selection and I understand that 100%

Question is, how many fans have been hoodwinked by this latest (and most basic) run of form? And how many were borderline, don't care, and are now fully back in the don't care camp?

Not sure that I care too much myself tbf. But I will get sick in my mouth if that cunt Wenger tries to play this up in any way.

[Power n Glory]

Coquelin has been poor all season though, one game doesn't change that, personally think he's not good enough. Holding has done well and has potential, as for the wing backs, yes they did well problem is there's no real pressure on these games, so it's hard to gauge, the real test is next season.

How many times have we seen this though, wins and decent performances at the end of a season when there's little to play for and then starting a new season and still be ing a shambles, just not convinced these improvement will translate into improvements next season.

It's hard to assess these performances in a similar way it would be in a friendly because these aren't representative of games that happen earlier on in a season when you have pressure and things to play for, you might argue we had the 4th spot to play for, but our chance always relied on other teams droping points, so to some degree the pressure was off.

One game doesn’t change that he has had a poor season but for the first time in ages, I’ve seen him show some attacking quality. Touches that had him evading defenders to open up more space for himself, neatly weighted passes, attempting to play the ball forward and long….it doesn’t change the overall narrative for whatever reason, he was able to play better and show sides we haven’t seen before.

It’s the same sort of debate I’ve been having here with Ozil. We’ve got examples of players showing they are capable but for whatever reason, they’ve had a poor season. Just adds to the debate of whether these are poor players, not trying or down to mismanagement.