Fourth, third, second, fifth and sixth — Arsenal’s last five finishes under Arsene Wenger aren’t looking quite so bad now.
They’ll be fortunate to finish in the top 10 this season the way things are going, not a sentence anyone would ever have uttered during the dog days of the Frenchman.
Yet all the rest of the country heard from huge swathes of the Emirates during Wenger’s last half-a-decade at the club was the fact he was past it, yesterday’s man.
They demanded more silverware and when Wenger duly delivered a couple of FA Cups the response was along the lines of, ‘Er, well, we didn’t mean that one, we actually meant the Premier League and Champions League’.
Arsenal supporters were so spoiled by Wenger’s first 10 years at the club that a good proportion couldn’t handle the fact that the second decade or so wasn’t anywhere near as prosperous.
But we weren’t talking of a famine following the feast, more like a group of people having to get used to eating only two courses at a Michelin-starred restaurant instead of three.
Wenger continued to deliver Champions League football most years and you have to wonder when they’ll be even battling to get into Europe’s top cup competition again, let alone battling for the trophy.
And you have to wonder how much worse off Arsenal would have been than they are right now if Wenger hadn’t been forced out of the club.
Few of those who wanted Wenger out will admit it publicly but, privately, some of them at least but thinking they go it wrong.
There will be many, of course, who still blame Wenger for the mess their club is in and the fact of the matter is that it will take some time to sort out.
Mikel Arteta has already spoken of the fact it will take at least a couple more windows, maybe more, to make Arsenal competitive again.
And he already wears the look of a man who hadn’t quite realised how bad things were when he accepted the job little more than a year ago.
The key now is for Arsenal not to flinch. He is the favourite with the bookies to be the next Premier League manager sacked and things aren’t good.
But unless Diego Simeone has suddenly indicated a willingness to take over then Arsenal need to give him the sort of time Jurgen Klopp was afforded at Liverpool.
That isn’t to say he will enjoy anything like the same sort of success the German has brought to Anfield.
But he might just be able to get them finishing fourth, third, second, fifth or sixth again if they do and that will be a start for Arsenal.
