There is a great piece on Saturday’s match by Patrick Barclay in the Telegraph that puts the Eboue incident on Saturday into some kind of perspective.

One telling line was that “A breed of fan has emerged that displays neither humanity nor affection for the game.” Harsh words, although seasoned Arsenal fans are all too well aware of how things have reached the level whereby a large number of the crowd reacted as they did when Eboue’s number was up against Wigan.

Barclay states that in the aftermath of Almunia’s brilliant save against Mario Melchiot, “instead of offering encouragement the voice of the Emirates turned nasty.” It reflected what happened against Villa after the penalty save. Rather than back the team and encourage them to compete, the crowd became impatient and restless and the team played so much worse in terms of commitment than they had a week earlier against Manchester United.

It took me back to Wenger’s words (in late 1998), about sausages and caviar. The Mirror reported that the manager… hit back at jeering Arsenal fans and insisted: "If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages." The Gunners boss made his defiant comments after seeing his team booed during their disappointing draw with Middlesbrough.”

The difference now, is that the club are charging people an awful lot of money, and at these prices, they expect caviar football. Barclay’s right that Arsenal fans have been spoilt on one level, but it’s not been without financial consequences. And with economic hard times very much already here, people don’t want to feel as ripped off paying through the nose to enjoy their afternoon as those that have visited an imitation Lapland in the New Forest.

Does such abuse of a player help the team? Not at all. And in the cold light of day, I suspect that some who cheered at the substitution of an Arsenal player might feel that they’d have been better remaining silent. Still, I’d be wrong if I didn’t admit that being there, with hindsight, the events that led up to the change and the substitution itself were actually great entertainment on a pantomime level. The unfortunate aspect of it is the real feelings of the villain of the piece.

And yet Eboue has made himself an unpopular figure by his failure to adapt to the football culture in the Premier League, and Arsene Wenger is the man to blame for that. The situation where he is pretty much a despised individual has come about through his overdoing the feigned injury routine. He takes it to ridiculous lengths and people who see it on a regular basis are absolutely sick to the back teeth of it. It’s one thing to dive to gain an advantage, another entirely to lie there stricken on a regular basis as if shot by a sniper’s bullet, and in my mind akin to spitting on the grave of Marc Vivien-Foe.

If you are going to con the ref, so be it, but if there’s one thing that fans really detest, it’s the pretence that a player is much more injured than in fact they are. And the sheer repetition of the act has made Eboue a target for the boo boys. As a consequence, the faults in his game – a perceived lack of ability and commitment – have been highlighted and eventually, the sociological concept of the formation of an outgroup has come to a football stadium. A player is persecuted to a disproportionate level because he is regarded as different by the majority. In this case, different to what the paying audience perceive are the qualities an Arsenal player should possess. You won’t find many descriptions of the player as an honest pro and that is why Wenger’s own comparison of Eboue’s contribution as being akin to that of Ray Parlour was regarded as an insult of the highest order to the Romford Pele.

Wenger should have had a word very early in Eboue’s Arsenal career to cut out the excessive acting. Instead, he let him continue and the consequences bore fruit against Wigan. On one level, it is a relief that the manager’s insular mind when it comes to his players has been punctured. Wenger doesn’t give two hoots what the crowd think, but by choosing to rely on his current group of overpaid youngsters without making greater efforts to secure the players that would strengthen the group through the transfer market, he’s made himself a hostage to the ire of many thousands who are scratching their heads as to why their season ticket prices went up last summer.

What occurred on Saturday was that, uncharacteristically, the manager was ultimately influenced by the crowd because his player was affected by them. So to salvage the home win, he had to remove an individual that had become a liability in terms of the team’s ability to retain possession. The points were too precious to chance leaving a player whose confidence was totally shot on the field a moment longer.

The repercussions are particularly unfortunate. The bond between the fans and the players is very fragile as it is. The players pay lip service to the fans, but are far removed from the reality of the fans’ existence (and opinions) due to both their wages and the way the club cocoon the players. Now the distance will be even greater as the players will lump all the fans together. It’s them and us alright, but ‘us’ in this instance doesn’t include the team’s own supporters. Will it create a siege mentality? Possibly, but not necessarily one that results in more committed performances. As for Eboue being sold, the problem with this is that he is so well rewarded by Arsenal that no-one is going to match his wages in the current climate, so he may effectively become our very own Winston Bogarde. He may have to go out on loan to see out his contract as it’s difficult to contemplate him returning to the first team. And frankly, he isn’t good enough to.

It’s a splintered camp in the Arsenal dressing room these days. Might this pull the players tighter together? I fear not, as there will have been players that were on the bench on Saturday bewildered (and possibly resentful) at the manager’s decision to put a player on the park when they believe they would have provided a better option. Eboue is apparently the joker off the pitch. Insert your own punchline.

Another unfortunate thing that came out of Saturday is that the players are at times playing in fear at home matches. Forget ‘Fortress E******s’, the suspicion now is that the team would prefer to play away from home as they will get an easier ride from opposition fans than they will from their own when things aren’t going swimmingly well.

Sadly, the abuse of Eboue is the tip of the iceberg at a club where things have gone the shape of a pear. Wenger still believes his team can challenge for the title, and the problem is, he might actually believe it. If so, he is delusional. And an exasperated crowd have found their way to express their disquiet. It’s by going further than not fully backing the team, it’s by barracking individual players. Next in line are Alex Song, Niklas Bendtner, Denilson and Manuel Almunia. What do all these players have in common? Well, they are sadly all too capable of turning in poor performances of the standard not seen at Arsenal since the fag end of the George Graham era, when tickets that now cost over £30 could be had for less than a tenner. And inflation hasn’t gone up that much. Footballers’ pay packets certainly have though.

People expect players on such high salaries to deliver – at least in terms of application and attitude. Ray Parlour was not technically gifted, but he was an honest trier. And that kept many fans onside when he played in a midfield quite obviously surrounded by better technical players. He played bad balls and lost possession, but he worked hard for the team. And he was never booed.

Those in the stands don’t know everything. Gilberto’s contribution was a mystery to many until it was missing. That’s a role Flamini excelled in for much of last season, until he ran out of steam (although Gilberto was so adept in the position he didn’t use up the amount of energy Flamini needed to). Now Alex Song is attempting to fill the position and it’s obvious he’s not in the same league. But the debate on the merits of Eboue the player were coloured long ago by his behaviour, and the chickens came home to roost at the weekend.

It’s sad that it has come to this. It was a black day for Arsenal, ironically with the new CEO Ivan Gazidis witnessing things from the directors’ box. But it has been coming. This is a tough season when there will be more than one casualty. Already the captain’s been replaced, now the players are in fear of playing in front of their own public. There’s some serious rebuilding work ahead, both in relations between the players and the paying audience, and within the squad itself.

My thoughts as I left the stadium at the end of the match were that every point is now precious, and none can be taken for granted. Thank goodness the team managed to hold on to all three. Champions League football is vital to the club. What remains of this season is all about securing it for 2009-10, and getting damned busy in the next two transfer windows to ensure that the next campaign is nowhere near as error-strewn as this one. Over to you Messrs Wenger and Gazidis…