Nicolas Pepe has deleted an Instagram post which took a light-hearted dig at Arsenal’s poor start to the campaign after their win over Norwich City on Saturday.
The Gunners were bottom of the table after losing their opening three matches against Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City.
But Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal helped the London side get the first points of the season as they sealed a 1-0 win against Norwich.
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During the match, Arsenal fans were heard singing, ‘we are staying up’ at the Emirates Stadium.
And in his initial post-match Instagram post, Pepe made reference to the chant from the Arsenal supporters as he wrote: ‘We are staying up! Thank you Arsenal fans for all the support.’
But, Pepe deleted the post afterwards and removed the reference to the joke chant by Arsenal’s supporters.
When asked about the fans poking fun at the club’s disappointing start to the campaign after the victory over Norwich, Arteta said: ‘I didn’t hear that but if it was done in a funny way, you have to accept it.’
Arteta also concedes he had a ‘question mark’ with Arsenal’s fans after the huge criticism he and the players have received this season.
‘What I’m describing is probably what you guys don’t see – what happens internally. I had doubts, I had question marks because I had to read and I had to understand and I had to reflect a little bit on different opinions and criticism. I don’t know how much they’re going to be affected,’ said Arteta.
‘I think the club has been extremely open to send a message across of what we are trying to do. I had a question mark, I have to be honest.
‘But I just saw incredible fans trying to inspire a team, trying to tell them ‘we are ready to suffer with you and we’re going to support you’. The rest, it doesn’t matter.
‘I’m extremely grateful and I got pretty emotional to see that because I think it’s pretty difficult to see in football. People are maybe expecting something or they want to go down other roads and try to transmit hate or whatever, and it wasn’t the case at all – so thank you so much.’
