The 32-year-old Russian winger left the Gunner’s last season after failing to live up to manager Arsene Wenger’s expectations, and when interviewed recently by the British tabloid newspaper the Sun said: “The atmosphere was weird. It felt like the crowd was at the theatre — good seats, expensive tickets and they wanted to see a show, not to support the team.
“It was like there was no advantage in playing at home. Many of the players — the leaders that were left from the club’s time at Highbury — often complained that the atmosphere in the stands was so bad.”
Meanwhile the Arsenal boss Wenger has said that he is not too worried by the clubs recent defeats against Dortmund and Chelsea ahead of what could prove to be an important match on Saturday when Arsenal play an in-form Liverpool fresh off their 4-1 rout of West Brom last weekend.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror Wenger said: “We want to win every home game, so the home form is a concern – but not as big a concern as the statistics might show it.
“Against Dortmund and Chelsea, we gave easy goals away. That is a positive and a negative. The negative is that we gave the goals away, but the positive is that neither of them created too many chances against us.
“It is down to how we get rid of those mistakes without losing the belief in our qualities. That is what is at stake.”
