When I left the Stadium yesterday I was utterly disgusted. With the performance? No (as poorly as Arsenal played they won 1-0 thereby entertaining me all I want). I was disgusted with the behaviour of a significant section of the home support.

The treatment of Emmanuel Eboue yesterday was disgraceful. Let’s get things straight, I am not a fan of Eboue, but all the time he is wearing an Arsenal shirt he will get my backing. I will moan about him just as much as everyone else, but I will not boo him. In fairness to Eboue he actually played reasonably well yesterday up until the last five minutes. His play in general has improved this season, especially when he played in his own position as cover for Bacary Sagna.

When Nasri went down injured yesterday I looked across at the bench immediately, fearing that Wenger would overlook Wilshere, Vela and Ramsey. My fears were confirmed when Eboue took his coat off and ran down the touchline to warm-up. In recent months I have started to feel sorry for Eboue, as I did for Perry Groves, Martin Hayes and Andy Linighan when they were the targets of the boo-boys (I hasten to add I have never felt sorry for Eddie McGoldrick). You see, Eboue cannot actually get on the pitch without the usual “f***ing Eboue again” type shouts – and I am as guilty as anyone for that. Yesterday was no exception – the majority of the crowd had made their mind up that Eboue was going to be rubbish before he even touched the ball. So, when things did start to go wrong an hour later people were ready to launch in to the Ivorian.

The fact is that Eboue does not ask to be selected for Arsenal. His inclusion in the match day squad is down to Arsene Wenger. We have endured the sight of Eboue playing as our right-winger for over a year, and he is clearly out of his depth there. To bring him on yesterday on the left-hand side was probably asking for trouble. It is not fair on Eboue to continually play him out of position, knowing that he is a target for the crowd. However, yesterday the crowd went way too far. If the crowd wanted to direct their anger at anyone it should have been Arsene Wenger as he is the one who expected Eboue (after six weeks out injured) to come on and play, out of position, for over an hour.

It was obvious in the last five minutes that Eboue had lost it completely, and Wenger had to take him off for the sake of the team (the fact that he brought on Silvestre to play there instead sums up the ineptitude of our substitutions though). However, I have never before heard an Arsenal crowd react in such a despicable manner. The cheer that greeted the number 27 on the fourth official’s board was louder than that which heralded the winning goal. The booing that serenaded Eboue’s long walk off the pitch and down the tunnel was sickening and must NEVER happen again to an Arsenal player. I watched Match of the Day last night and the pictures of a clearly distressed Eboue upset me. What must the lad’s family have thought – his wife and young children were almost certainly in attendance?

So who are these morons that would choose to turn on their own? My brother believes that it’s the new type of Arsenal “supporter” – the type whose first Arsenal midfield was Pires-Vieira-Gilberto-Ljungberg. Those of us who have sat through matches a bit longer have seen far worse players than Emanuel Eboue. Let’s not forget that Bendtner got similar treatment during the Villa game, though not on the same scale as yesterday, so this can certainly be considered a relatively recent phenomenon (the first time I remember an individual being actively booed by the crowd was Sol Campbell during the West Ham game a few years ago, and I was annoyed and disgusted that night).

My message to those that would seek to boo Arsenal players is simple – if you want to do that then go and sit in the away end with like-minded individuals and let the rest of us support The Arsenal.