Of course, there's a downside to even that. Liverpool's win meant that Arsenal are now stranded in 6th place, 5 points behind Tottenham, and a further three behind the our other supposed challengers for a Top 4 spot. That last phrase - Top 4 spot - I typed with a giant dollop of irony - the way the team are playing we should be grateful to already have 39 points in the bag and it will take a massive turnaround in fortune to get back into that particular race.
So after Sunday, where are Arsenal? Let's start with Bournemouth; and it might sound like a long-playing record. An uninspired away performance against an inferior side that led to an all too familiar defeat. From a winning position. With recent faults repeated and contributing to the defeat.
But were we surprised? Not really. Without the soon to depart Alexis Sanchez - and frankly who can blame him for wanting to leave for a club with a bit of ambition? - and the injured Ozil (who doesn't deserve to have to play with most of the current squad) we were left with Jack Wilshere to drive the team on. And with due respect to Jack, for all his qualities, he isn't ever going to be World Class now. Expecting the likes of Welbeck and Iwobi to provide the service to Lacazette - and it's difficult not to feel sorry for the poor guy, to be honest; he looked miserable throughout - is optimistic to say the least, and with Ramsey barely back and Xhaka possessing little pace (either in legs or brain) there's no other inspiration in the side at all.
On top of which, the Manager appears to no longer be able to set out or motivate the side to do anything different. Yet he comes out at the end of the game with a comment about making 'mistakes we should not have made'.
Really? So he's never seen Cech mis-judge a cross across the front of his area, or a side vulnerable in the early moments after a change of defensive shape, or more pointedly he's never seen Xhaka fail to track back ( I can think of three occasions this season without giving it more than two seconds' thought)? And there's the problem; for all his abilities on the ball, Granit Xhaka is not a defensive midfielder. Xhaka doesn't have those instincts and Arsene Wenger is incapable of coaching them into him. He seems to believe that Arsenal - contrary to literally every other current side I can think of - don't need a defensive midfielder (and even let go the closest we had in Coquelin).
And this is what's damning about that. Only a few days ago Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who we must remember turned down the £60,000 (50%) a week extra offered by Arsenal to go to Liverpool, said in an interview:
'The biggest thing I've had to learn is how this Manager likes to stop situations at source. I was in certain habits and certain things became second nature to me and in football it is all about instinct. You train and train a certain thing so when you are in that situation you don't think about it. It might just be a simple trigger when something happens and the defence passes to the deepest midfielder and the ball is slightly behind him. That's your cue to go and press. At your previous club you might not even look into that.' I repeat 'At your previous club you might not even look into that.'
This is poor on two huge counts. Firstly, that Wenger doesn't coach what is second nature to every single other side, and secondly that this is precisely what happens when Xhaka receives the ball in that very situation. Utterly infuriating.
So we have a squad where a new goalkeeper is going to be required very soon. If not two. An indefinable defensive system with a hotch-potch of players who the Manager can't work out how to employ. A midfield without the key component of an out-and-out defensive man. And a dysfunctional forward line. With a Manager who these days seems incapable of improving players; indeed, many are going backwards. He continually plays people out of position. And there is a pervading lack of confidence throughout the squad.
Koscielny, Kolasinac, Monreal, Ramsey, Ozil and Giroud are either injured or on their way back from injury, and there is contract/transfer speculation about Debuchy, Walcott, Giroud, Welbeck, and then Wilshere, Ozil and Alexis. Bloody hell; it's literally all falling apart!
So where to apportion blame? Well, we can point every finger we like at the Manager - and we probably should - but the inertia at Board level has been the catalyst for the mess that the club is in. It's certainly a 'catalyst for change', Ivan. Just the wrong sort! Wenger should have gone last summer, or after any of the recent FA Cup wins. He could have got out whilst the going was relatively good.
In one world that Stan Kroenke inhabits - NFL - it's firing season; for far less than Wenger is guilty of. And if Stan thought that Wenger and the wonderful Arsenal Board of Directors could enable him to carry on milking his Cash Cow, how wrong has this season proved to be! £40m lost due to failure to qualify for the Champions League and another £40m down next season, up to £100m down on possible transfer fees for Ozil and Sanchez; and that's just for starters. Unsustainable.
Inevitably, lots of names are being linked with Arsenal at the moment, and that's understandable. The team is badly in need of injections of fresh blood. But if I were on Arsenal's radar I'd be asking why join Arsenal at this moment, what system am I going to be coming into, who else is coming and who will be in charge next season? Imponderable on all counts.
I tell you what this feels like. It feels like the end of George Graham's time in charge. A side that has lost its shape and character, and a Manager who has run out of ideas. So who is going to be Wenger's Chris Kiwomya, or his Glen Helder? As it happens, those last George Graham years are when I got my first season ticket; and that's got me thinking, I can tell you! I am sad to report that going to games is becoming quite a chore. Maybe I'll spark it up this week by joining the protest march?
Let's heed lessons from the past here. Far from competing with Bayern Munich - really, Ivan? - the club is in freefall. Lessons have not been learnt - apart from being a shining example of how not to do it. I think that we're a long way from becoming another Leeds United or Sunderland, but it's a long, long way back from here.
The only thing is; the squad is not totally devoid of talent. Not by any means. What it needs is a new man to deliver a different message, and to shake things up. It's started already, around Wenger, with Mislintat and soon with Sanllehi, but I truly believe that the way things are going the Manager's legacy will be forever tarnished and he should leave with whatever shred of dignity he has left. Things can, as it stands, only get worse.
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