Despite the fact that Arsenal are not out of the Premier League title race yet, at least not mathematically anyway, you will not find many people other than Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players who are willing to even entertain the possibility that our hopes are not over for another year.
A clear example of this is the number of articles in the football media discussing what has gone wrong for the Gunners this season and what the boss needs to do to have a chance of ending the long wait for the trophy next season. A Sky Sports report has pointed to five key areas which have let us down and which Arsenal need to improve on.
One is mentality, highlighted by our tendency to lose points from winning positions or to falter when expectations are high. Another is the poor finishing that has seen us struggle to score anywhere near as many goals as our possession and creation of chances should have seen. A third is the transfer business done by the manager and the board. Whoever is to blame it has simply not been good enough. The final two are linked, with our defensive frailties in general and more specifically the individual errors that have led to chances and goals for the opposition.
That is a lot of things for Wenger to fix before the start of next season, but can he do it? Or is the real problem the fact that all these problems stem from the top and the one way of fixing them is to get a new manager?