On Monday, they announced that they were making redundant Gunnersaurus, the club mascot, a friendly 8-foot giant friendly dinosaur who appears at all their home matches and is also known for his work in the local community.
Played by Arsenal fan Jerry Quy, who has been donning the costume since 1993, the mascot was one of a series of cost-cutting measures announced in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The club said that they were open to him returning, once the fans are back in the stadium, but for now he would have to stand down.
What they were not expecting was the immediate backlash from fans, supporters of other clubs, and from the public at large.
Within hours of the announcement a GoFundMe page had been set-up encouraging fans to donate to a fund to save the mascot.
And the club hardly helped the optics of the situation by later that same evening, triggering the release clause of Thomas Partey, the Atltico Madrid midfielder for 45 million, paying the amount in full. That is many times over what they pay the dinosaur.
On Tuesday, the row spread even further, with prominent TV personalities in the UK joining in the calls for him to be reprieved. The former speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, an Arsenal fan, even interrupted a debate about President trumps illness to ask fellow supporter Piers Morgan to help save Gunnersaurus.
And now, Mesut Ozil, the clubs highest paid player, has offered to pay Quys salary for as long as he remains at the club.
That in itself is embarrassing. Ozil is paid 350,000 a week and was the main player who refused to take a pay cut earlier this year in response to the financial crisis facing the club.
He has fallen out with the manager Mikel Arteta and has not played since lockdown, but has refused to leave the club, and is determined to see out the length of his contract which still has a year to run.
Undoubtedly his motives are partly political, but, if it helps save Gunnersaurus, few Arsenal fans will care.