Kroenke and Glazer - How Arsenal's owner emulated Manchester United's

That had to be pretty humiliating last night for the St Louis Rams. The Wembley game had been described by both teams as 'close to a Superbowl' in terms of occasion, so lose without putting up much of a fight would be immensely disappointing for the players.

The Rams lost 45-7 to the New England Patriots. The Pats were favourites, but the Rams had looked decent at times this season, beating the undefeated Cardinals in Week Five, and many expected them to put up a strong fight, or even win.

It topped off a pretty disastrous week for Rams owner Stan Kroenke. During his visit to London he had 'popped in' to Arsenal's AGM. It was hardly a jovial affair.

The man dubbed 'silent Stan' faced a barrage of criticism, from his own supporters no less, along with chief executive Ivan Gazidis, with fans venting their anger on the back of two successive defeats which from a board point of view could not have been more ill-timed.

Little was resolved at the AGM and supporters left feeling every bit as frustrated as when they arrived. For Kroenke to have experienced that first-hand will not have bee  a pleasant experience for him (we can hear the sympathy from Gooners from here), and to see his Rams comprehensively beaten last night will have topped off an unsatisfactory week for him.

Arsenal may have beaten QPR yesterday, but he will be under no illusion as to the challenges facing his majority ownership at the Emirates.

Still he can take solace that he is not the only rich American to see his 'perfect' trip to London end in disaster. Last year Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer and his family suffered the most ignominious public humiliation.

They watched on at Old Trafford as Manchester United hosted Manchester City. The derby was the first part of a double header which could have been the ideal sporting day for the American, yet it was worse than any one could have predicted.

It was the game in which City stunned the world by thrashing United 6-1 in front of their own fans. A limp performance and non-existent defence was the prelude to City's title victory, and played a huge role in their goal difference title victory.

On from there the Glazers, tails between their legs, jumped into their helicopters and flew down to Wembley to watch their Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Chicago Bears.

They were without Rio Ferdinand, who was expected to play a role in the pre-game ceremony at Wembley, but was ordered not to by Sir Alex Ferguson after his poor showing in their 6-1 defeat. Indeed doing so would have indicated his mind was very much elsewhere, and we doubt Rio would have felt like doing it anyway after a sickening defeat as that.

For the Glazers there was worse to come. The Bucs had gone into the game in good form, having defeated the previous year's Superbowl champs the New Orleans Saints in the run up to the fixture.

They lost 24-18 to the Bears, but were always chasing the game, and it topped off a miserable day/week for the Glazers. Was it worse than Kroenke's with Arsenal? We'll leave that to you to decide.

There could be worse yet to come for Stan Kroenke. After the Bucs Wembley defeat last year they went on a losing run and saw any chances of reaching the play-offs disappear, leading to the Glazers sacking the coach at the end of the season.

The magnitude of the defeat yesterday was big, and the Rams will have to be careful they too do not suffer a severe Wembley hangover.

Who had the worst trip to London? The Glazers or Kroenke?

image: © arctic wind