Arsenal completed their side of the bargain in resounding fashion but, as expected, were obliged to settle for fifth. A glaring opportunity missed, or a season of heartening progress?
There will correctly be a mark placed in both columns but a regular stream of goals on a warm afternoon, against the most obliging of opponents, meant nobody in the stands was in much of a mood to get hung up on the negatives. Europa League football will bring its own challenges, given the thinness of Arsenal’s squad was ultimately their undoing, but it at least signifies that Mikel Arteta has been able to arrest an unseemly decline.
