Supporters will go to extraordinary lengths to justify whatever their club of choice has decided to do. We could argue the point until the end of time but we, as supporters, will ALWAYS back our club. We don't always back the players themselves, and we don't always back the manager, but definitely we get behind our club - well, I do anyway.
But Arsenal's reputation has been irreparably damaged by the way Arteta has done things over his time there anyway, so pulling his players out of these friendlies isn't going to make any difference to how people see either the club or the way this whole thing has been handled.
I truly believe that -whatever the outcome of this season- Arteta is on borrowed time.
Winning the Prem does not mean he will have endeared himself to the footballing world: the eye-watering amount of money he has spent, and the way he has had his team conduct themselves in order to achieve that will negate any possible goodwill from fans outside of the Gunners bubble.