One of the most infuriating moments in Arsenal’s long, infuriating season came in December when we played Wigan. Emmanuel Ebooooooue was brought on for an injured Samir Nasri in the 32nd minute and proceeded to play one of the worst, most heartless displays I’ve ever seen given in an Arsenal shirt. He refused to track back when Wigan was on the attack, and repeatedly gave the ball away whenever he touched the ball. In the end, it got so bad that Wenger had to give him the ultimate insult and subbed him out of the game in the 90th minute.

I will boo you AND your precious teddy bear

When he was subbed out, Eboooooooue was, fairly, booed off the pitch by Arsenal fans. But if you had just heard the response to this act by the soccer media, you’d have thought Arsenal fans had tried to kill the pope. Common phrases thrown around were “disgraceful,” “ashamed of themselves,” and “not real fans.” Look, here’s the thing:Normally, I’d be inclined to agree with the pundits on this one. Generally speaking, fans shouldn’t boo players on their own teams. But everyone who’s not an Arsenal fan missed the boat on the Ebooooooue incident.

Because it wasn’t just that he’d had a bad game, or even that he’s a bad player. Unfortunately, the current team contains quite a few players who I think could fairly be described as not up to Arsenal’s usual standard of quality–Diaby, Song, Bendtner, and maybe Denilson all come to mind. And yet there’s a reason these guys have received nothing but support by the Gunners faithful. And that’s because, unlike Eboooooue, we fans understand these players are out there giving their all every time they put on the red shirt. They keep their heads down, they work hard, they lift up their teammates, and even when they don’t get the job done, it’s down to a lack of talent or skill, not work ethic or effort.

But what you’ve got to understand, if you don’t follow Arsenal closely, is Ebooooooue is cut from a completely different cloth. When you watch him it becomes quite apparent that he’s not giving his all–he jogs lackadaisically around the pitch, he doesn’t track back, he continually makes lazy passes that result in losses of possession. When he does manage to create something, his top priority is to throw himself to the ground at first contact and try to draw a penalty. With all due respect to Gerrard and Ronaldo, Ebooooooue may very well have the dubious anti-honor of being the Premier League’s best diver. Furthermore, when the referee (rightly) denies his penalty appeal, Eboooooooue has the temerity to constantly mouth off and complain to the referee.

That’s why we boo Eboooooooue. The pundits would have you believe that Arsenal fans boo Eboooooooue because we’re modern, “what have you done for me lately?”, spoiled, entitled, ingrates. But, in fact, it’s the exact opposite–we boo Eboooooooue precisely because we love Arsenal so much. Whatever opposing fans may think of us or our club, it is our club, and we love it and love all that it stands for. Cesc. Clichy. Wenger. Henry. Vieira. Pires. Adams. Lehman. Seaman. Brady. Overmars. Bergkamp. George. Rocastle. Highbury. Invincibles. 1989.

So when we see someone wearing the red shirt with OUR Arsenal crest on it not playing hard, blatantly diving, and whining to the referee, what would you have us do? Stay silent? Or worse yet, cheer for the whiny idiot? As all fans do, we love our club, and when someone, through his play, actions, and attitude, does harm to the club and all it stands for, you’re damn right we will boo him, and if pundits want criticize us for that and tell us we’re not “real fans,” so be it.

Which brings me to yesterday, which sums up Ebooooooue’s Arsenal career in a nutshell. Ebooooooue thought he got fouled, and continued to complain to the referee for minutes afterward until he was finally shown a yellow card. Then, later in the first half, after Adebayor had been carted off the field with a hamstring injury, Eboooooooue stupidly retaliated by kicking out at Luca Modric. Play continued, but after a minute or so, referee Mike Dean, after apparently conferring with a linesman, showed Ebooooooue his second yellow and he was gone for the day.

Remember that this was in one of the biggest games of the season–not only were we playing our North London rivals, but it was essential to our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season to win this game. And one of our primary attacking threats had just left the field on a stretcher. This was a time for us to band together as a team, backs against the wall, and somehow gut out a victory. Instead, Eboooooue decided to stupidly kick out at an opponent in retaliation and got rightly sent off.

But surely afterwards Eboooooooue took responsibility, right? Wrong. He continues to blame others for his own mistake, blaming the referee for the first yellow, even though he very clearly wouldn’t stop complaining afterwards. Now, granted, whenever a referee has the gall to call a foul on Wayne Rooney, Rooney commits everything short of physical assault on referees and never gets a yellow, but the unfortunate reality of English soccer is that there are different sets of rules for different players and teams. Referees apply one set of criteria to British players and another set of criteria to foreign players. Referees apply one set of criteria to the Big Four and another set of criteria to smaller clubs. It may not be fair, but it’s reality, and Eboooooue has to live with it like everyone else.

And even if the first yellow was unfair (and I don’t think it was), Ebooooooue has to tell himself, “Okay, I’ve got a yellow. It’s the biggest game of the season and the referee is well-known for giving out a lot of cards. I’ve got to be careful the rest of the game.” Instead, he decided to kick an opponent in retaliation just 9 minutes later, and was rightfully sent off.

To his credit, Wenger didn’t complain about the second yellow, or the procedure in which it was given. Given the circumstances, the team held together nicely–having to play with 10 men, on the road, for 65+ minutes is no easy task. Spurs had chances, and thankfully, someone forgot to tell Robbie Keane he was playing against Arsenal, as he displayed his skill at missing the kind of easy chance he typically misses against everyone except us. Almunia made some very good saves in goal, and Alex Song really should have scored late to steal the points. And it ended a 0-0 draw, which was a fair result, all in all.

It may seem strange to say that a team on an eleven-game unbeaten run is “in crisis,” but I think that’s a fair description of the current state of affairs. The unbeaten run consists of only 4 wins and a disappointing 7 draws. We’ve only scored 1 goal in our previous 4 games, and haven’t had a convincing win in the league since October 26. Hopefully the international break will give us a chance to get things sorted out, because as it currently stands, we won’t qualify for the Champions League. And frankly, we don’t deserve to.

As for Ebooooooue, he faces a one-match suspension, and will miss the FA Cup replay with Cardiff next Monday. I wouldn’t be sad if he never put on an Arsenal uniform again, but, at the very least, I think his playing time will be substantially reduced. Hopefully his actions on Sunday will be the final straw which convinces Wenger that he cannot be a part of any Arsenal team with any hope of winning silverware. More importantly, Arshavin is fully capable of playing on the right, and Theo should be back as our regular right-winger by the end of the month. Even 17-year-old Jack Wilshere offers more than Ebooooooue at the moment.

More on the FA Cup replay next weekend.

-Martin