To be sensible for just one second as people demand Wenger's resignation/sacking, we have come close.
Fine, we may be experiencing the same collapse at the tail end of the season and there might be some fine tuning - through signings, conditioning of players or tactics that we need to reach the maturity that will see us dominate.
HOWEVER.
What do we have that we didn't have last season to take away?
- We dealt better with the bullying from teams like Stoke than we did a couple of seasons back
- We beat Chelsea and beat them well, with Drogba shackled
- We defeated Barcelona with a team including some very young and new players and showed some real resolve in the return leg where it was snatched away from us. But still, that victory was big for this team
- We reached a cup final, the worst one but we still got there and a one in a million bobble saw us defeated
- We have more options than we've had before as a squad (but I would agree we don't always use them tremendously well)
- We're starting to see the best of Theo and Jack, who - along with Ramsey - will be a fantastic base for our future (they already play with great maturity, the former two)
We did all that without our best CB for 90% of the season, Robin for half of it (his goalscoring has been incredible) and I think we need to see that we are close.
Fine it might be Arsene's shortcomings that mean we are not there, but we've not been this close on all fronts since we last won something.
I can wait another year if you can, Arsene.
You guys might not see it, but the breakthrough is inevitable.