Although my time in this role remains relatively young, I have been in enough Mikel Arteta press conferences to get a sense of the mood when the Arsenal manager enters the room at the Sobha Realty Training Centre. After a tough week and two cup defeats, naturally, I was expecting perhaps something different to what we got. I was wrong.

Arteta walked into the room, and sat at his desk with a stern look ready to face questions over the latest on Gabriel Jesus, other players' statuses, the January transfer window and, of course, Kai Havertz. The German international and his family were seen to have received horrendous abuse from so-called Arsenal supporters in the wake of the defeat to Manchester United.

After taking questions on the former, Sky Sports' Gary Cotterill rightly entered the phrasing of the question with reference to the "idiots" who had sent messages in the direction of the Arsenal forward. Arteta, who had offered plenty of snappy team news-related answers prior to this, looked suddenly re-energised by the opportunity to speak on the matter.

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"It's incredible, honestly," he said. "We really have to do something about it, because accepting that and hiding this has terrible consequences.

"It's something we have to eradicate from the game because it’s so cynical and dependent to a result of an action. There is no other industry like this.

"When we played Ipswich on December 27, we win 1-0 and Kai Havertz scores. The whole stadium after that is singing the 'Waka, Waka' [his chant].

"That was 20 days ago. Where is the perspective? We are all responsible.

"You guys [the media] are responsible, everybody is responsible for the narrative and how we talk. We cannot look somewhere else. That's a really serious matter. It affects me. It affects him and everybody that is in the industry.

"We can accept it and say that's our job, but there are certain limits and the line has to be drawn. We put a lot of attention on technology and what is next in football. What is next in football is that this should be prohibited. It cannot happen. That's it."

In the wake of seeing the comments myself, I had been conflicted by the two pathways available in my own mind. Do not give these horrendous acts oxygen - sadly and typically they can be boosted by the power of anonymity social media provides, or face them head-on, and call them out.

Yet it was the obvious hypocrisy that Arteta was making reference to that made me sit up straighter in my chair in the press conference. I make no secret of my own Arsenal fandom which runs alongside covering the team, and when you see the things published on social media Sunday evening it is sickening; it angered me as it clearly did Arteta.

Has Kai Havertz been the prolific centre-forward that Arsenal have perhaps needed to take them to a title? No, sadly not; but as top scorer right now of a side which broke records for their goalscoring in 2024 and in the previous two seasons, that in itself provides plenty of context.

Then comes the hypocrisy. The clue is in the word: supporter.

Opinions and criticisms are anyone's right and having the view that Arsenal need more goals and that can come from outside in terms of a signing is totally fine. Having the view that the chances Havertz missed against Manchester United were not good enough, again are fine.

But at the end of the day, no matter those thoughts, Havertz is an Arsenal player. He pulls on the red and white of the club every week and while fans are happy to sing 'Waka Waka' when he scores, instead of being there to lift him back up when he struggles it seems at this present moment it is far easier to bring the hammer down.

Declan Rice arguably missed an even better chance amongst Havertz's missed opportunities on the day, but the heat for Arsenal's No.29 appears significantly greater. What subtext exists behind that I'll leave to you to make your conclusions, but scapegoating is nothing new within the discourse around Arsenal players.

Gabriel Martinelli, Oleksandr Zinchenko and others have faced this reality. When you're good, great; when you're bad, get out.

I wrote back in October of 2022 a piece about Gabriel Magalhaes and how at the time the Brazilian defender was facing a growing level of scrutiny from supporters. A couple of high-profile errors had combined and suddenly Gabriel was under quite the pressure.

William Saliba had burst onto the scene which at the time had overshadowed the player who when you fast-forward to today has more than held his own in comparison to the Frenchman. In fact, many would consider him having had the better last 18 months.

It goes to show how fickle fandom has become. Has the state of what a supporter is been lost? Has social media given that runaway train more fuel? Almost certainly.

Collectively there is a longing for more action and it is understood that Arsenal's work with Signify, an outfit dedicated to helping identify online abusers, remains headstrong. The club always push for the maximum consequence for those found and any related season tickets or memberships could be lost as a result if they are linked.

Yet what will sit with me from the press conference is the blunt hypocrisy Arteta correctly outlined. It's the classic English football fan chant, 'You only sing when you’re winning'.

Fans who only support players when they're scoring are no fan base at all. Quite the opposite.