Arsene Wenger Is Losing the Arsenal Fans, so Will the Club Act?

Another weekend, another disappointment for Arsenal. It seems to be a depressingly regular thing for Arsene Wenger's side, apparently each and every victory becoming more difficult to enjoy because of the nagging feeling that a calamity will be just around the corner.

That calamity came at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday, when Stoke City took advantage of some abysmal defending to inflict a 3-2 defeat on Wenger's side, thus pricking any balloon of optimism that might have formed following wins over Borussia Dortmund, West Bromwich Albion and Southampton.

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The defeat was basically all of the problems that are holding Arsenal back under Wenger in microcosm. Their record at Stoke is disproportionately dreadful for perennial Champions League participants against consistent mid-table finishers who have changed styles of play and managers in recent years. Thus, it's something that can only be rationally explained by a curious mental block that overcomes the Gunners whenever they enter the Potteries.

Would this mental block disappear if Wenger was no longer the Arsenal manager? Perhaps, perhaps not. But many Arsenal fans have now reached the point where they simply want to try something different.

More simply, and perhaps more tangibly, it was a defeat that brutally exposed—if more exposure was necessary—the folly of Wenger's summer transfer policy. Selling Thomas Vermaelen was not, in isolation, an indefensible decision, not just because his form had dangerously tailed away, but also because of the injury problems he has suffered since moving to Barcelona. However, starting the season with just six senior defenders, particularly as one of them was a 19-year-old who was first-choice back-up in two positions, was so patently neglectful that it bordered on lunacy.

Calum Chambers might well be a very talented defender at some point in his career, but at the moment he is still learning, and his flaws are being cruelly exposed. The best thing to do at this point would be to take him out of the firing line and allow him to recover, but Wenger can't do that because while Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal have their own fitness troubles, there is quite literally nobody else to replace him.

It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that there is plenty of dissatisfaction among the Arsenal support. This manifested itself in reports that some of the travelling fans fought each other following the game, but also when Wenger and some of his players were abused by fans as they boarded the train home.

To harangue a man who has done so much for Arsenal—it perhaps should not need to be said—is unacceptable. Regardless of the club's troubles at the moment, Wenger deserves more than that.

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However, this is simply the more extreme end of a growing sense that Wenger has "lost" the Emirates crowd. An unscientific estimate of the support for the embattled Frenchman would put the split between those who would like him to go and those who don't at around 50/50, with the former crowd growing with every defeat.

Managers are generally shown the door when they either lose the crowd or lose the dressing room, and while there is little suggestion of the latter at Arsenal, there is plenty of the former.

The question now is, is there is anyone at the club with enough clout to act and remove the man that has made Arsenal what they are today?