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Football London
Football London
Sport
David Byrom

Arsenal fans fly banner over Villa Park and send transfer ultimatum to Stan Kroenke

Arsenal fans have flown a banner over Villa Park calling for Stan Kroenke to leave.

The plane carrying the banner was picked up by microphones during the television coverage of Arsenal's game against Aston Villa.

With no fans in the ground, the plane soon drowned out players' and coaches' voices whilst commentators battled to make themselves heard over it.

The noise caused a stir on social media and it quickly transpired that there was a banner calling for Gunners owner Stan Kroenke to back Mikel Arteta in the transfer market or leave the club.

It said: "Back Arteta, Kroenke out."

It is not the first time Gunners fans have publically called on the club to back Arteta in the transfer market.

At the weekend, after Arsenal's FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City, one fan held up a poster saying "Give Arteta money" when presenter Jake Humphrey interviewed supporters over webcams.

Arteta himself has already voiced concerns over how much backing he will get in the transfer market as he tries to cut the gap on the top four.

He told Sky Sports : "It's a big concern.

"You can see how Liverpool build their squad and there is no magic, you need to improve the squad with quality, quality players.

"And we need a bigger squad to compete in this competition. That is the challenge.

"It's a massive job. You only have to look at the difference between the two teams - it's enormous.

"The gap in many areas, we can't improve it in two months.

"But the gap between the accountability, the energy, the commitment and the fight between the two teams is now equal.

"Before it wasn't like this. I'm very proud of that.

"The rest will take some time but at least we've got that now and my message to the players is with that we can create something."

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