Does anything justify the anger and the hate?

I can understand the frustration, I also agree with a lot of the well reasoned and coherent criticism of Arsene Wenger's failings at the tail end of this season, I am bitterly disappointed that our season looks to be collapsing into nothing again. However what I cannot feel empathy for and what I cannot condone is the tone and the harshness of some of the abuse that is currently being directed at the manager and certain players by certain Arsenal 'supporters'.

If you cannot criticise without spitting venom then you would do better to grow up, count to ten and then come out with something reasoned and polite. Behaving like petulant aggressive adolescents doesn't do one's arguments or reputations any favours in my opinion. I am used to this kind of behaviour from spoilt and unappreciative Manchester supporters, but I expect better from Arsenal fans. As adults we should try to put football into perspective, we should try to behave maturely and not fly off the handle in a knee jerk manner without engaging our brains.

The manager seems to damned whatever he does these days. If he accepts defeat gracefully then he is just too wet and doesn't care, if he gets a bit angry and shows some passion then he should be more graceful. If he criticises his players in public then he's a bad manager and if he doesn't then he's backing incompetents. A lot of the abuse he gets in the media is so unfair it's not true, so inconsistent and riddled with double standards it stinks.

The manager has made mistakes but there's a way of pointing this out that's acceptable and a way that's just plain unacceptable. Certain players need moving on, some just aren't good enough, some just aren't one hundred percent committed to the club. The tactics have also been completely lacking on too frequent a basis, playing a lone striker against a team that sticks ten behind the ball just doesn't work well.

However if it's a 'with us or against us' bipolar situation then I'd rather stick with Arsene Wenger than supporters who will attack each other for chanting a certain player's name, than supporters who will attack each other when things aren't going quite to plan, than supporters who will regularly put more energy into jeering their own players rather than getting behind the team, than supporters who cannot express themselves both reasonably and politely in their criticism of the manager and players, than supporters who always point our what they haven't but ignore what they have. I hope the lads can put a committed performance in tomorrow night and make a real point. Come on you Gunners.