Re: Hull City Performance

Dear Mr Wenger,

I have just arrived home (12:25am Sunday 28th September) having driven back from the match with my partner (Katy) and my 8 year old son (Harry) – as you can see, I live in the north of England (I am a season ticket holder)

I absolutely and unreservedly think you, Mr Wenger, are a forward thinking genius, but feel that you just might want to share this letter with the players so they gain an appreciation on how their “performance” affects the people who travel from all over the country, each week, to support them in the UK and in Europe.

Given the result and being a superstitious type, I thought it may have been because I washed my replica shirt for the first time this season, or because Harry was wearing his brand new replica shirt I had bought him yesterday, instead of his old shirt that we had never lost whilst he wore (in the few games he has seen us play), or because my girlfriend was not wearing her lucky garment... then, when the self doubting mist evaporated, I concluded that it was simply down to the players failing us with their complete lack of drive, focus and passion.

I would like Arsenal Football Club to refund half the cost of my efforts in supporting my team yesterday - this is based on the fact that they (the team) only put in half the effort required to do their job. So, that is half the cost for two adults and one child to sit in the best stadium in the UK, plus half my costs in getting there (that’s four hours driving there and obviously four hours back: they (the players) may not have noticed, but fuel costs have risen dramatically this year).

I find it simply amazing that despite ALL that you would said pre-match about how we will do all we can to stay top of the table and not take Hull City for granted as they are one of the newly promoted teams, that the players then produce such a completely lazy, arrogant, complacent performance. I don’t mean to take anything away from Hull, but the way our team strolled around the pitch for an hour was a disgrace to the shirt.

I thought we had learnt our lesson about thinking we can turn on and off the ability to perform at our best: I just hope that this is the start of an awful pattern, where we have six superb performances and then one rubbish one (Fulham, now Hull): there are no easy games anymore... we win convincingly, because we deserve to, not because we are Arsenal – which leads me on to attitude... If some players have a problem motivating themselves against teams they feel are “below” them (carry on performing like that and Hull won’t be below us anymore), then bring in the (younger) youngsters: the commitment we saw from the whole team against Sheffield United was outstanding – a tackling midfield and forwards unafraid of the physical side of play.

I know you don’t comment on individual players, but playing at home, surely Vela would have been a much better option than Eboue (who has had a reasonable start to the season) – Vela certainly WOULDN’T have squared the ball ten yards from goal!

Katy (who is a bit of an academic like yourself, but on a lesser scale) says that the team is a little like someone studying for an exam; where they are really focusing on the more technical aspects of the syllabus and therefore aiming to score marks for the difficult questions, but missing out on the easy marks because they are forgetting the basics.

I appreciate that this is a busy period for you, but I hope you understand Arsenal fans fully support everything you are trying to do, but maybe the players are being given too much credit for their intelligence, when they simply decide to ignore your pre-match instructions – hopefully by the time you read this, we will have put in a good performance against Porto (and be rewarded with a victory).

In Arsene WE (still) trust!