A 3-1 victory in the F.A. Cup to me seems like a good result, Plymouth are a good side and clearly came with intentions of not sitting back. With our team so not looking at its best I was reasonably pleased with the result.

The Plymouth fans turned out in large numbers as I thought they would. Someone near me at the ground said that there where 8,500 Argyle fans. Whilst a fellow fan and me where trying to see where the divide was between the Argyle fans and ours was on the upper tier, it became very clear that the Gunners’ support was rather lacking, as there where empty seats everywhere. This has become more and more visible as the season has gone by.

But then I remembered that on the way into the ground I had gone past the box office, where there was a sign saying that the Plymouth game was SOLD OUT. So where were all these fans? Was it the cold? If it was then that is a pathetic excuse, I accept that some people may have had a genuine reason why they couldn’t attend. But I think the reason that they were where so many empty seats was because people didn’t think that Arsenal vs Plymouth was good game to see. To me it looked like a little bit of an embarrassment, Plymouth filled their allocation and must have thought that Arsenal just couldn’t care.

Now seeing that many have written us off for the Premiership and we are out of the League Cup, isn’t the F.A. Cup a decent chance to get some silverware (not forgetting for the European Cup of course)? That to me would suggest that the players could do with a full crowd to cheer them on! How would you feel walking out for a home game and seeing hundreds maybe thousands (who knows because of Arsenal’s dodgy attendance figure system - 59,424 my arse!) of empty seats.

We might not agree with Arsenal’s squad choices, players, transfer policies and so on, but we need to give our full support at home matches, much like we do at away games.

Another thing that is annoying me about the crowd is the emptying of the stands before the end of the game. Today I reckon that by the last five minutes the crowd had halved. Come on fans, please stay to the end and support the team. I am not trying to make any excuses for the off the title pace form that we are displaying. But it might lift the players more if they see the stadium full.

Oh and another thing would the man who sits about five seats along from Block 111 row 5 seat 557 STOP coming in late, leaving before the half time whistle, coming back five minutes after the second half has began AND leaving five or ten minutes before the end of the game!

(Ed’s note – Weds 7th Jan 2009 10pm – The writer of this piece has asked me to publish the following…)

An Apology

Dear readers, on the night of the Plymouth game I submitted a article regarding what appeared to be a small crowd, at the end of the article I put a small message regarding a gentleman who arrives late, leaves early at half time, arrives back late after half time and then leave 5 or 10 minutes early at the end. After receiving some feedback about this article I have realised that this comment may have been a bit unnecessary. I therefore apologise to any reader that may have been offended by the comment.

- Mike Paterno