But the problem Wenger’s had is maintaining that success. Since 1998, and until 2005, he’s either won the league or finished second. Now we know the new stadium has made things incredibly tight for us and we basically have no money to spend, and since 2005 we’ve been ‘close’ to winning things but just haven’t had enough to get over the final hurdle.

And, unfortunately, that is Arsene Wenger’s fault.

Expect the expected, Premier League also over next week.

The Invincibles failed utterly in Europe. Bergkamp didn’t even travel. Understood historically, they bottled a UEFA cup against Galatassary, they lost to headers by John Carew, they lost routinely to teams like Barca, Valencia, Fiorentina, and Dinamo Kiev. They even lost to Chelsea for the first time in 18 years in a Champion’s League quarterfinal you muppet. (sorry, but if you don’t know that the knock on Arsenal for those years was their relative mental fragility on the big stage, then you are probably only 15)

The only Wenger team with total balls in Europe was the 2005-6 vintage, who were a domestic disaster. Sadly, that team had a lot of experience and characters mixed with youth that knew no fear. Perfect for cup football. And Henry - the face of the Invincibles - still bottled two chances to put the tie away before Larsson even came on the pitch. Now we are about stuck in the middle of that mix - not old enough and not young enough. Seasoned internationals like Eduardo and Rosicky haven’t given us the arrogance of an elite team, for obvious reasons.

This tie would have told AW and Ivan Gazidis exactly what they needed to know if they want to win the Champion’s League in the next five years. In the first place they need a domestic trophy soon to start getting the right winning mentality. So players need to be sold and bought, of course. Namely, AW has got to unearth or break the bank for our candidate for player of the year. Henry has not been replaced. But it’s a club in the real world and not Football Manager. Barca had its lean years and now they are in 4 of the last 5 semi-finals, and beat ManU pretty easily last year, which is actually evidence in favour of Arsene’s slow and steady policy. But Barca grew into their current dominance in a Spanish league that had no Chelsea or ManU to contend with - just look at their league table and remember that Real was only a sporadic threat to their dominance (under Capello). For us, now it seems that both Manure and Chelski are bordering on a phase of rebuilding. They face quite a bit of instability over the next two to three years. Meanwhile, there are a few teams building toward something with room to improve and the money and savvy to do it — Arsenal and Tottenham, believe it or not, Man City and Aston Villa. I absolutely trust Wenger to get the better of these teams over the next few years and get us a domestic trophy, then (with him or his successor) target the Champion’s League with a squad with an average age of 27-28, not 22-23.

There are five games to go. Yes this group are overachieving; yes some of them will be sold or in the reserves next year. I hate the lack of silverware but I am thrilled our season ain’t over yet and it’s time to pull together and beat Tottenham without Cesc or Arshavin. But win or lose we are still in line for another crack at the Champion’s League next season. And we’ll have a bigger and better squad you can be sure.