Arsenal's Arsene Wenger abused by Arsenal fans at railway station after shocking stoke defeat
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was abused by the club's travelling fans as he boarded a train at Stoke-on-Trent station following the club's 3-2 defeat at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
Arsenal fell behind after only 19 seconds and were 3-0 down by half-time and, although they pulled two goals back in quick succession after the break, they were unable to salvage a point.
Footage on YouTube showed Arsenal supporters booing Wenger, who has been manager since 1996, with one shouting at him to "f*** off and leave," while another shouted to striker Joel Campbell: "Get out while you can, Joel."
Arsenal's defeat brought an abrupt halt to a run of three successive wins, and defender Per Mertesacker said they had only themselves to blame.
"We nearly came back from a shocking first half," Mertesacker told Arsenal's official website. "We had to
show some morale and some respect to our travelling fans.
"At half-time we said to ourselves: 'We're going to fight until the end, no matter what happens.' That was the only positive thing. We're not normally like that [defensively], so it's a big regret.
"We have a few problems. We have had a couple of games in the last two weeks so we had to shuffle around a bit and sometimes when you're not used to a position, you can find yourself one or two yards from the right position.
"That's not an excuse - overall we lacked a lot of things, especially in the first half, and we tried to turn it around and keep our chins up to give ourselves a much better position."
Midfielder Mathieu Flamini said: "We are very upset with ourselves and very sorry for our fans, who travelled here."
