Arsenal Fans' Trust Expect 10K Empty Seats vs. Hull Amid Arsene Wenger Pressure

Arsenal face the prospect of playing Hull City in an Emirates Stadium with up to 10,000 empty seats on Saturday as "apathy" towards the team causes Gunners fans to stay away, according to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust. 

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has come under increasing pressure recently as his side's Premier League title challenge looks, once again, to have stalled midseason, and AST spokesman Tim Payton said "the most likely protest will be in the form of empty seats," per James Olley in the Evening Standard. Payton added: 

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Fans I talk to are extremely frustrated but there is no great desire for organised protest aimed directly at [Wenger] given all he has achieved at the club and the result is that many fans simply can't face going every week. Add in the fact it is a lunchtime kick-off on a cold weekend at the start of half-term against modest opposition and the crowd could be 10,000 below capacity.

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Arsenal face Hull having lost their last two matches to Watford and Chelsea, and they are now 12 points behind the league-leading Blues and just one point above fifth place.

The Gunners' chances of winning the Premier League for the first time since 2004 are now very small, while they will have to get past Bayern Munich to avoid crashing out of the UEFA Champions League at the last-16 stage for the seventh season running.

The north London side were outplayed in their 3-1 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and a very limited section of the travelling fans made their thoughts about Wenger known, per the Evening Standard:

Wenger subsequently called on Arsenal supporters to be united ahead of the Hull game, citing the example of arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, per Mattias Karen of ESPN FC: "We are in a fight there, we absolutely have to be united or we have no chance to do it. You have Tottenham, everyone is in the fight and everyone is behind their team. We have to do exactly the same, even if we had two disappointing results."

Wenger has been in charge at Arsenal for over 20 years, but rarely has his position looked more under threat.

According to the Mirror's John Cross, the club have compiled a list of four potential replacements for Wenger should he leave the club, which includes Borussia Dortmund's Thomas Tuchel, Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri, Bayer Leverkusen's Roger Schmidt and Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim. 

Towards the end of last season, for a home game against Norwich City, Arsenal fans organised a protest encouraging Wenger to step away from the club, but it was taken up by only a few in the crowd, per MailOnline's Adam Shergold.

Swathes of empty seats for Saturday's game against Hull will send out its own message to Wenger, but it's an improvement on the pitch the Frenchman will likely be most concerned about.