Arsenal fans launch petition to stop Mike Dean refereeing their games

Angry Arsenal supporters are going to some lengths to try and keep Mike Dean away from their team in future

Here are three indisputable facts about Arsenal supporters:

1. They despise Chelsea (and particularly Diego Costa).

2. They are not particularly fond of Mike Dean, the referee whose handling of their 2-0 defeat at Chelsea is why No1 is particularly true at the moment.

3. They love nothing more than using their massive online presence to hijack polls/dominate Twitter/launch an Arsenal-related crusade.

Once you combine these three things, no-one should be in any way surprised by the news Arsenal have launched an anti-Mike Dean petition:

Yes, one particularly annoyed Gooner has gone online and created a petition aimed at having Dean barred from taking charge of any future Arsenal games.

In the words of the petition's creator:

"It is time that we get an inquiry to his ability to referee Arsenal games."

For most clubs, such things might raise a brief laugh and then disappear without trace. Not Arsenal. Arsenal know how to mobilise their online army - and at the time of writing, nearly 25,000 people had signed the petition.

God knows if that means it will succeed, but that's a BIG number