That's the least you can say if it wasn't already bloody obvious based on the results we've had this season. Last season we played dissapointing for a lenghty time, then woke up in March and played some excellent football, delivered when it counted and eventually got our payback on Liverpool in the final. After the final whistle it was the end of an era. We should have just replaced half of the team and started the next. Instead they were all rewarded with contract renewals and fresh confidence and we hardly brought in anyone of a value apart from 17 year old Pato that couldn't play a minute before he turned 18. And those dismal mistakes from our managment really show when we've hardly won a home game this season or even having enormous problems scoring a goal.
I normally would had have been thrilled to draw Arsenal cause we hadn't met them since the mid 90's in the supercup when we beat an all English team (0-0, 2-0) :lala: but with the aformentioned problems of aging players past their prime, players out of form and players just coming back from injuries it wasn't the best time to play the young Arsenal with an average age of about 23, full of confidence, pace and willingness to archive success, something that we so badly lack this season. Although both teams missed and ridicolous amount of passes and Arsenal especially missed many crazy goal chances cause of poor finishing aswell, I don't think there was any doubt who was the better team after 180 minutes. We stand defeated and can only congratulate Arsenal for playing better.
The thing is that I saw this coming by far, I didn't have high hopes for this Serie A season or CL campaign and I'm not even bitter for losing, more relieved that this is the start of something new. The only thing we can do now is to wait til the summer and rebuild the team from the ground with plenty of new blood. On the other hand we've already won anything (CL, World Club Championship) so it's time to let someone else get a chance

Good luck to whoever wins the CL this year, I'm sure we'll be back eventually, great clubs always do!.