Last night there was a program on TV about the South Pacific. Featured in it were albatross chicks taking their first tentative steps, wings outstretched down a narrow beach runway. At time you could see the prevailing wind lift their massive outstretched wings and see the power and potential they had despite how ungainly they were on their tiny feet. Then after a few experimental wingbeats they would get to about three feet above the gently lapping waves and turn from windward to the open sea. But being unpracticsed, this maiden flight was not sustainable and they landed clumsilyback into the water. At that exact moment Tiger Sharks, who had waited patiently, gobbled them up for lunch with one wing protruding either side of their comically vicious grins transforming them into creatures of myth, before a second gulp disposed of the struggling bird.

Difficult for an Arsenal supporter not to see that and think what an accurate metaphor for how the last couple of weeks have gone.