Reading the papers yesterday after the 4-2 win over Bolton, putting us top of the league, the journalists don`t half miss the point by criticising the supporters who booed off the injured Mark Davies (better if it had been Kevin Davies), for being unsporting.

Jason Burt in the Telegraph said - "And is cheering off an opponent as he lay on a stretcher, and who was quite evidently badly injured, really necessary however much you want your team to win?"

Sorry, all I can remember was the unsporting behaviour of he and his Trotters team-mates who spent most of the night (and the previous Sunday) kicking, gouging and diving their way through the matches.

Burt goes on to say - "It will be argued that, for years, Arsenal have been kicked by Bolton so what’s wrong with a bit of retribution. But they haven’t been kicked by a talented young player like Davies or by a team managed by Owen Coyle." Sorry, Davies plays for a team that kicked every Arsenal player who moved, he had the ball, Gallas wanted it more than he did. As his namesake, Kevin, had dived and feigned injury throughout the game, we simply assumed he was cut from the same cloth, and was doing the same. Bearing in mind we have suffered over the years with other teams not kicking the ball out, or not returning it (Tottenham 1996, Sutton/Blackburn 1997, Tottenham again 2006, Everton 2010 - though that one was fair enough - amongst several others), you can hardly blame them for not thumping the ball to the touchline.

Also, bearing in mind the ref had seen Bolton, especially Jaaskalainen, waste time at every opportunity, he may just have assumed that Davies was trying to get the game stopped. The Boy That Cried Wolf, indeed. Besides, had the boot been on the other ankle, the press would have been saying, "it was a fair challenge" and quoting Corporal Jones’ old Dad`s Army saying. My only regret was that Uncle Sam was no longer Bolton boss, he would have whining like child deprived of their chocolate bar.

I have time for Owen Coyle, as does Wenger - why else would he have been prepared to loan Jack Wilshere to Burnley when Coyle was manager? The Scotsman clearly had the red mist on when he claimed Gallas` tackle was tantamount to assault. No, it was a 50-50 challenge, probably a foul, but the ref missed it (I am writing this without the benefit of having seen it on TV yet). Some of the Trotters` challenges were assaults, the thumping lunges from behind by Avi Cohen`s son on Rosicky, and by Steinsson on Eduardo, are two that remain in the memory, despite all the goals and drama of the night.

Surely, the fact that 59,000 Gooners all cheered the numpty Davies off the pitch should have indicated to journalists how we all felt it about the way the game was going. It wasn`t just a few isolated, youthful idiots jeering mindless abuse, it was the vast majority of the crowd. We were all sick of seeing Arsenal booted off the pitch. We were all sick of remembering Taylor`s assault on Eduardo. We were all sick of remembering Bolton continually kick us off the pitch in the Allardyce years, especially April 2003, when they injured half the team, and deprived us of the title. We were all sick of us losing to a bunch of spiteful Northerners, being told that we lack bottle against the so-called traditional English game.

Those that live by the sword, die by the sword.

These Northerners do not, indeed, like it up them.

(Ed’s note – the next issue of The Gooner goes to press soon, and this is just a quick request to ask anyone reading this just to quickly vote on a new referendum we have on the right hand column on our front page - just scroll down a bit. We need a few more votes to run it on our 91st Minute page, the question being whether Arsenal can win the title without buying new players in January? Thanks.