Arsene steps up for his fall guy Bellerin
ARSENE WENGER has told Arsenal’s angry fans to lay off Hector Bellerin – and revealed that the Spaniard has been playing through the pain barrier.
The full-back was the main target for Gunners fans infuriated at last Monday’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, with the club’s previously loyal travelling support also losing patience and calling for Wenger to go.
Arsenal will not take any decision on his future until the end of the season and the manager is intent on signing the new two-year deal which is on the table.
But apart from Wenger, it was Bellerin, 22, who took the brunt of the frustration at Selhurst Park. At one point his own fans refused to give him the ball back for an Arsenal throw as they sang “You’re not fit to wear the shirt”.
At the finish, as he went to applaud fans, he received such abuse that he had to be consoled by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. But Wenger said Bellerin, up until very recently, had been feeling the effects of the ankle injury he picked up in November that kept him out for a month.
“It was unfair from the fans, as he is a guy who is genuinely Arsenal and wants to do well,” said Wenger. “He is ready to play with pain. For a while he has been feeling the ankle.
“Then you get bad habits and you forget your first job is to defend and win challenges, because you protect yourself a little bit.”
Tonight, Arsenal play their first game since the Palace debacle, away to Middlesbrough, and Wenger knows a win is vital to stem the rising tide of anger at the collapse of his side’s season.
“The players are focused, conscious that they want to respond and accept completely that we were not at the right level,” he said.
“The fans love the club. It’s a good period to be united and not divided.”
Boro boss Steve Agnew wants his side to be the new great escapologists.
He has seen two of his old clubs, Sunderland and Leicester, defy the odds to avoid relegation in previous years and wants Boro to follow suit.
To achieve his unlikely aim, his goal-shy side have to win as many games in the next month as they have all season. “That win we’ve been waiting for can literally change a lot of things and affect other teams as well,” said Agnew.
“It has happened in recent seasons with Sunderland and Leicester, so why not us?”