Legendary former Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger once famously noted that, "If you give success to a stupid person, it makes them more stupid. If you give success to an intelligent person, it makes them more intelligent." 

It sounds like a harsh verdict, yet it perfectly encapsulates the strange paradox currently unfolding at the Arsenal, because the more Mikel Arteta gets them closer to their ambitions, the more irrational a vocal subset of the supporters becomes.

Mikel Arteta has orchestrated a different fortune, even though the trophies have not followed, for the Arsenal of the 21st century, especially in the last 21 years, restoring the club to a state of absolute elite relevance is the most significant achievement of the Emirates era.

For a club that has been represented by all-time greats like Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Tony Adams, Ian Wright, and several others, the current generation of fans can only rely on the proud history of these legends for their feel-good moments.

Arsenal, over the final 12 years of Arsène Wenger's tenure, endured a terrible period. Even after the Frenchman's departure, the standards continued to fall, until they reached a stage where they lost every shred of dignity.

For over seven years, the fans called for the manager's exit with the #WengerOut campaign, but could not influence a decision until the Frenchman decided to call time on his time in the dugout at the end of the 2017-18 season.

For years under Wenger, UEFA Champions League qualification became a joyous ceremony, and became the target at Arsenal year in and out, until they eventually lost that as well at the end of the 2016/17 season.

It took six years before Mikel Arteta was able to lead them back to Europe's premier club competition, and a club that was a lightweight team for the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and the like has now been turned into one of the commanding forces.

With their win over Inter at San Siro on Tuesday night, the Gunners have beaten all but one of the teams they have faced in the Champions League since their return to the competition in 2023, with Atalanta being the only exception.

Yet, a subset of the fanbase remains perpetually malcontent, finding reasons to pick at a manager who has delivered victories they could only have hallucinated during the late-Wenger or Emery years.

For contextual perspective, the last time Arsenal visited San Siro in the Champions League before the appointment of Mikel Arteta as manager, they lost 4-0 to an AC Milan team that was not even among the dominant forces at the time.

Victories like this come cheaply these days for Arsenal, especially in the Champions League, but instead of the fans simply enjoying it and appreciating their players, they always find a reason to create internal discord.

For the latter group defined by Wenger, the intelligent ones, rival fans can't be that insufferable. Still, the culpability, ironically, lies with Arteta, who has changed their fortunes and given them the relevance they have never tasted.

How Mikel Arteta Made 'Some Arsenal Fans' Stupid

Instead of celebrating a good win, they have a reason to complain. From Bukayo Saka doesn't pass to Viktor Gyokeres to Mikel Arteta does not like Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino shouldn't be starting,..., they believe themselves as the know-it-alls and think their opinions matter.

Arsenal sit comfortably at the league summit, seven points ahead of Manchester City, and are the first team to reach the round of 16 in the Champions League, but the fans are not happy because Ethan Nwaneri has not been playing, and is being loaned out to Olympique Marseille, blaming Arteta for not favouring him.

Last season, Ethan Nwaneri enjoyed a run of games due to Bukayo Saka’s injury, a nostalgic nod to the youth-centric models of the past, but sentiment does not secure silverware.

In an ambitious, title-chasing environment, the arrival of proven talent is the standard, but this set of fans sees it as a slight against the academy.

The fans had been used to playing youth players, an approach that had borne no fruit in more than two decades. Unlike the days of Wenger, Arsenal now spends like the other top clubs, and the fact that Arteta still gets minutes for Hale Enders shows his commitment.

At Manchester City, Pep Guardiola signed a top midfielder in Matheus Nunes, benched him for almost two seasons before finding a use for him as a right-back. Ask the Arsenal fans, do they see Manchester City moan about it?

Success is a powerful magnifier, but at Arsenal, it has become a distorted mirror. As Arsène Wenger famously noted, giving success to a 'stupid person' only serves to accelerate their ignorance, maybe that was why he held them to the mediocre status back then.

Success needs getting used to, and the Arsenal fans can learn a thing or two from rival fans, like the Cityzens, and Liverpool, who are the dominant forces of English football in the last few years.

Instrument of the media agenda against their own club

The Arsenal fanbase is easily triggered, and the media knows where to take them whenever they wish to push an agenda, whether to disrupt a cohesive atmosphere around the club or for other negative reasons.

They complain of the media agenda against their club yet consume every piece of content aimed at undermining their stars. They criticize their own players when tilted in a certain direction, and set players up against each other with their stupid analysis of what they have no idea about.

Despite winning their games and being well-positioned to finally end their trophy drought, they complain about the manager's tactics, the same manager who had them playing the best football yet without a notable achievement.

Mikel Arteta has played all the football at Arsenal, and his football still ranks in the top two best in England, but the media does not want the fans to realize this, they seize upon every marginal tactical nuance, feed it to the fans, who then make an issue of it.

They are insufferable, not only to their own fellow Arsenal fans, but also rival fans, especially on social media spaces, because their takes get so irrational, so much so that it makes you ponder if it is a kid pushing the buttons.

The fault lies not with the individual who fails to recognize greatness, but with the visionary who gifted them a success they were mentally unprepared to handle.

In his quest to make the club great again, Mikel Arteta has inadvertently bred a culture of ungrateful entitlement, turning a once-patient fanbase into the very 'stupid' collective Wenger warned us about.