Stoke City vs Arsenal: Arsene Wenger expects behaviour of fans to worsen in the near future

Arsene Wenger believes that the notoriety of fans following disappointing results is likely to increase in the future, in light of the abuse he received at the Stoke City railway station following their 3-2 loss at the Britannia last season. The Gunners have a torrid record against Stoke in the past few years, with their last win coming in 2010, which saw Aaron Ramsey break his leg after a tackle by Ryan Shawcross.

The Gunners will make the trip yet again in the weekend as they look to build on their position at the top of the table and anything less than a win can see them drop to as low as third, should other results go against them in the league. Wenger revealed that he had not taken the abuse personally in the last term but this is something that new managers have to take in their stride as the problems are expected to exacerbate in the near future.

"I didn't take it [personally]. I was sad and upset more by the result than by the individual reactions of people, which I can understand. When you love a club, you want the results to be positive. It's a more common thing now and I believe it will be a problem in the coming years," Wenger said, as quoted by the Mirror.

"You don't want to be isolated too much because you want contact with people who love the club, you want contact with the fans. But I see it in France, especially now in the last two or three weeks, many problems occurred with disappointing results on that front."

Arsenal are set to welcome back Alexis Sanchez to the squad after the Chilean missed the last couple of months with a hamstring injury he picked up in November against Norwich City. Meanwhile, Danny Welbeck is also close to a return and is expected to make the starting line-up by the end of this month.