Momentous, historic and simply remarkable. Leicester City have triumphed against all odds – 5000/1 odds to be precise – and reached the dizzying heights of first place by beating almost everyone that stood in their away.
At times the football played at the King Power Stadium and away from home has been full of counter attacking goodness that the likes of Atletico Madrid would be proud of, with their relentless pressing and precise moves forward finished off by either the deadly Jamie Vardy or silky Riyad Mahrez.
Those who analyse football tend to pick out a select few of individuals when a team has particularly impressed, but this Leicester side have performed together with the same energy levels and determination all season. Resilient, persistent and led by an all-round nice guy in Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes deserve everything that has come their way in 2016.
As for Arsenal, well, everyone at the club, including long-serving manager Arsene Wenger knows that the Gunners have wasted their best opportunity in 12 years to win their first major domestic title. The 2007/08 season, when Eduardo had his leg broken at Birmingham comes close, although Manchester United and Chelsea both provided stern challenges during that campaign.
This time around, Wenger hasn’t looked to reel off excuses like he’s planning for his weekly grocery shop. Admittedly, the Frenchman has cited Leicester’s injury list and lack of games in other competitions as to why a team that cost less than £31 million in transfer fees has beaten the rest to the title, but he has generally expressed a feeling of guilt and regret on a season that quite simply should have been.
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Leicester have shot to pieces the age-old saying from pundits that ‘you need proven winners’ to be in with a chance of picking up silverware. Indeed, Ranieri’s men now boast many of those, but the only player with a previous title of significance to his name was Robert Huth who won the league with Chelsea twice over a decade ago.
The likes of Mesut Ozil and Per Mertesacker have World Cup medals, Alexis Sanchez has won the biggest trophies for Barcelona while Santi Cazorla has a European Championship victory to his name. This season has proved that the only traits that matter in a winning team are self-belief and consistency, something which the Gunners have failed to apply to a high percentage of their games.
So where did it all go wrong?
Manchester City (69), Liverpool (64), Manchester United (63), Chelsea (50) have all had more separate injuries than Arsenal this season.
The Gunners are only the 14th most injury-hit team in the league, having suffered 37 separate injuries. Even Tottenham (42) have fared worse where injuries are concerned and with two games to go, unless they suffer a shock collapse, are about to finish above their north London rivals for the first time since 1995.
Having brought in fitness coach Shad Forsythe from the German national team, Arsenal's injury has situation has surprisingly improved on paper. The biggest miss has been Santi Cazorla's absence in midfield, but the Spanish maestro's spell on the sidelines is only one of several reasons why Wenger's men haven't picked up the Premier League trophy in 2015/16.
Arsenal's general play has been predictable for a while now. Wenger's side have continued with a slow, posession-based game which served them well over a decade ago. It doesn't work any more.
Teams like Leicester and Tottenham have been able to take advantage of the one dimensional tactics on show at Arsenal by deploying a transitional show of counter attacking football. Both teams have mastered the art of hitting teams on the break, especially Leicester, whose trademark high-tempo attacks finished off by Jamie Vardy have become a testament to the football they play.
Will Arsenal revert to playing wingers next season instead of pummelling players through the central areas of the pitch to no avail? It looks unlikely.
Failure to buy an outfield player in the summer has come back to haunt Wenger. He snapped up Petr Cech on a free transfer, one of the most logical transfers at the club in recent times. The addition of Mohamed Elneny in January was similarly astute but not buying a much-needed centre back and striker has proved problematic.
Olivier Giroud hasn't scored in 15 consecutive Premier League games this season and the likes of Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck are not what you consider 'out-and-out' goalscorers. Arsenal have conceded the same amount of goals as Leicester (34) although that doesn't tell the whole story.
Continuous lapses in concentration where defending is concerned has become evident throughout the latter stages of the campaign in particular. Interestingly, Arsenal moved quick to bring Leicester's Head of Technical scouting Ben Wrigglesworth to the club in January after being informed of his influential data analysis work at the King Power.
It's been a season of frustration for Arsenal and as the post-mortem continues over the next few weeks it will be up to Wenger and chief transfer fixer Richard Law to identify the missing players in the Gunners' jigsaw. Law, who is beginning to draw up plans for the club's summer spending, will play an integral part in negotiation and finalisation of any transfer deal. Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Granit Xhaka looks set to become the first acquisition of what could be an underwhelming summer in terms of 'marquee' signings at Arsenal.
Whether Wenger has realised his mistakes of the past season and delves into the market for the much-needed reinforcements is something we're set to find out in the next three months. One thing is for sure, the Frenchman is focused on tying Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez down to new contracts before making up for lost time in what is expected to be his final season at Arsenal Football Club.