Arsenal need their supporters but defeat to Manchester United unveiled a worrying situation for Mikel Arteta after boos ring out around the Emirates Stadium
06:00, 26 Jan 2026
Mikel Arteta was an animated figure on then touchline trying to invoke a response from the Emirates crowd
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Mikel Arteta was an animated figure on then touchline trying to invoke a response from the Emirates crowd(Image: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
What on Earth was that? For the second home game in a row, I cannot recognise the team that was in front of me.
Misplaced passes, mistakes, poor touches and a total collapse after the first 30 minutes. Against Liverpool, it was the same story; in that case, both teams couldn’t find any meaningful chances, whereas Manchester United certainly did.
Three goals from an expected goal tally of less than one, United took their chances when they came; Arsenal failed to create much beyond their two scrappy goals. It’s not looking good at all.
It’s not a nice place to be, when you start to look at “our house” as Mikel Arteta and the players describe the stadium, and it feels anything but that. I’ve posited for a while that large parts of the fan base are not ready for a title race.
There were audible boos heard at full-time. It’s subjective whether you think booing your own team when sitting four points clear at the top of the Premier League is appropriate, but it just feels off to me.
That is the first time this home crowd have seen their side beaten this entire season in their own back yard. The response to that is to boo them.
It was far from a perfect display but they fought to get the second goal and were, in the end, beaten by a brilliant strike having conceded a controversial (considering the ball appeared to touch Dorgu’s arm before his strike) goal before it, and instead of resilience and encouragement to go again, many, so that it was detectable to most, decided to boo.
“That's part of the demands and expectations that we want to win, and that's it,” Arteta said when he was asked about it. “Individually, everybody can react in the manner that they need to.”
When I pushed Arteta further on the point on the boos, asking how it makes him feel after his side has done what they’ve done to be where they are, and a first defeat at home gets that response, he was still dogged in his reply but opened up some more.
“It doesn't matter; we have to do more, so maybe that's not enough,” he said. “We have to do more; there's nothing else. We have to do our very best.
“When you do that, you can rest in peace. Today we really certainly tried to do our very best, but we weren't efficient enough against a team that is very well organised, and we got punished because of our own mistakes as well.”
In the last four matches, Arsenal have played away from home, scoring ten goals across them. Going to Leeds United next weekend might provide some respite from the pressures of the Emirates Stadium, but the midweek Champions League game with Kairat, which can see Arsenal secure top spot in the league phase of the competition, will come before it.
Getting back to winning ways here could be some encouragement for the team while making some changes ahead of the weekend. But I would stop short of expecting a raucous atmosphere.
This defeat falls squarely on the team; this is not an attempt to re-assign the blame to the Emirates Stadium crowd, so please do not misinterpret it as such. I rarely find myself venting much in these post-match talking point lines, mainly because the team haven’t given me much reason to this season.
Many players need to take a long, hard look at themselves after this performance and then, as a collective, use it as fuel to take them into the remaining games of the season. I walked out of the San Siro emboldened by what this team is capable of at one of the world’s most notoriously difficult stadiums.
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It is amazing how a few days can separate two entirely contrasting performances, and that worries me. But were I in those stands, I certainly wouldn’t be booing this team; that I know to be true.