Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Arsenal sent out an e-mail to Gold Season Ticket Members basically charging them an additional surcharge of between £17 and £30 (depending on which seat the member is in) for the Barcelona game. The charge will be added to next seasons season ticket.

Unsurprisingly, the fans are outraged and rightly so. Arsenal have by far the most expensive tickets in the league and the charges are unjustified. Look, I’m not naive and it’s obvious football clubs need to make money to pay for overheads, players wages, transfer fees, maintenance, etc. but the problem is Arsenal can’t really justify their prices.

Arsenal are charging top money but aren’t a top club. If we were winning trophies like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Chelsea, then the prices “could” be justified. But in the last 10 seasons we’ve won 2 FA Cups!

Don’t get me wrong, the prices fans currently pay are obscene and it would be a slightly lesser blow if we won big titles like the Premier League or even progressed well in the Champions League. But we’ve consistently not challenged for the title and usually finished 4th in the league, and we’re usually out of Europe at the first knockout stage.

The irony (is it irony?) is that this extra charge for the Barcelona game will most likely end up with a humiliating defeat, compounding the anger for this extra charge. Messi, Suarez and Neymar are in unbelievable form and if we get battered at The Emirates then expect a hostile response from the fans.

Arsenal have “graciously” offered fans the option to opt out of this surcharge, on the condition that they give up their Barcelona ticket. Who in the right mind would do that? Arsenal have the fans by the short and curlies and they know it!

With Arsenal’s season going down the pan and with the team dropping points at an alarming rate, this really is a PR disaster for the club.