“I simply cannot believe he will react to these stupid comments from these silly people. They are supposed to be supporters, but, in fact, they do quite a lot of damage”

The words of Arsenal chairman Peter Hill Wood yesterday in response to Arsene Wenger’s astonishing press conference in which he parked his tanks on the lawn and started firing back. But any hopes Wenger had of drawing a line underneath the episode and limping on to the end of the season were dashed with another astonishing outburst, this time from his own chairman.

And who was he branding ‘silly people’, pundits, press guys or another manager? No, he was in fact attacking a section of the club’s own supporters, the Arsenal Supporters Trust no less. Hill-Wood was responding to a statement from the Trust expressing ‘bitter disappointment’ at the club's six-year trophy-less streak. Now maybe the Trust should have waited until the end of the campaign to vent but it was hardly a ‘Sack-em-all-they-are-all-useless’ speech calling for revolution and a complete change in Arsenal Football Club.

But Hill Wood has made it in an issue by branding them and anyone it seems that dares to have an opinion about AFC as ‘silly people’. The response is up there with Gerald Ratner’s claim that all the products his shops sold were ‘crap’ – that led to the demise of Ratner’s jewellery chain of shops, one hopes Arsenal don’t suffer the same fate.

What it also does is confirm that Arsenal in a state of civil war at the moment, supporters are being attacked for having an opinion despite the fact they pay the ticket costs, the programme cost, the beer and burger costs every second week. What about the supporter who follows the Gunners home and away, will work overtime to fund that trip to Braga, to Donetsk – doesn’t he deserve his voice to be heard?

Somehow, Hill Wood’s views could be justified if he owned a large stake in Arsenal, the reality is that he is chairman despite owning one of the smallest percentage of shares in the club. Even Nina Bracewell-Smith owns more and she was kicked off the board some time ago. In the past Arsenal has been the bastion of good ownership, a board which did the business while the manager managed, Hill Wood’s outburst is a worrying step in the wrong direction.

If Arsene Wenger was feeling the pressure already then the temperature has now been turned up another 10 degrees with this. As well as arresting a worrying slump which has seen them win once since February 23 he now has to tackle a supporter base who are going to be hacked off with the board. Arsenal’s next two games? Liverpool and Manchester United...oh and they are both on the television as well.