The damage was already done

We all hoped, but at the end of the day none of us can be surprised. Going to the home of a team like Atletico and hoping to doing any kind of a job, with our lacklustre way of play and our pitiful away record this season - that would be a fairytale. And the thing about fairytales is, they're not real. I'm not saying it couldn't have been done - just that, given how our season has been, WE were never going to be the ones to do it.

Realistically we were doomed from the whistle. We are not that team of old, with legendary players and irrepressible killer instinct. We are what we have shown this season and for a few past - mediocre, erratic and disappointing. 'Arsenal' is becoming a synonym for 'unreliable'. Case in point - last leg. We took the lead and had a man advantage for 80 minutes and we still failed to win. Forget the old wives' tale of a team of ten being harder to beat because they have nothing to lose - while there is SOME truth to this, realistically over 80 minutes ten men will tire easier and be stretched thinner. We should have given ourselves a real chance in the first leg and we didn't, because that is what we have become.

We have three matches left and they're all dead rubber. I genuinely hope the attendance is minimal and the board can see just how much of a wipeout this season has been - unlike others which have had some silver lining in the form of a cup win or Champions League qualification, this one has pretty much none, other than the promise of a change of management. Hopefully that change, whatever it is, will also garner a change in playing style and fortune - a transition period never happens overnight and usually entails some disruption, but even so, hopefully better days are on their way.