Another season, but the same story.

A poor defeat at home left Arsenal with too much to do, and a positive result away from home couldn’t see us advance into the Champions League quarter-finals.

This squad has – more or less – been together for the past two years, when defeats to Bayern Munich have seen us crash out of the last 16, despite winning 2-0 and drawing 1-1 at the Allianz Arena.

The 2-0 win in Monaco on Tuesday night was another good performance after too much damage had already been done, but in the past the team have managed to take the second-leg performances in isolation as an opportunity to create momentum.

Mind The Gap

The 2-0 win in Munich in March 2013 inspired a charge through the rest of the season. Ten league games remained and Arsenal went through them unbeaten, winning eight of those fixtures and only drawing against a very defensive Everton side (0-0) and champions Manchester United (1-1).

Clinching fourth place by just a point, the run was vital for the club. Tottenham also finished the season strongly, but our form was just about good enough to usurp them through the last two months.

The win in Munich helped Arsène Wenger decide upon his strongest eleven, and the settled side looked solid and confident.

Inujries, fatigue, and disappointment

Last season was very different. A strong start to the season left us still in the title race by the time we were out of Europe.

The game in Munich left Arsenal without Mesut Özil, who joined Aaron Ramsey on the sidelines. The draw was, again, a good but futile result. After a long season Arsenal followed the draw up with a win in the North London Derby, before failing to win in five. The first of those was the devastating loss to Chelsea, which it clearly took a while to get over.

A draw against eventual champions Manchester City reignited some sort of belief and the last five games were comfortably won, keeping four clean sheets along the way before lifting the FA Cup in May. Following a loss at Everton, we responded well.

Under a lot of pressure to pick up results when it mattered, the Champions League defeats didn’t seem to damage the team too badly. Good second leg results seemed to reinforce self-belief.

This team know they are good enough, and they know they have to make up for disappointing defeats.

Different

This year the landscape is different again.

We head out of the Champions League having lost to an inferior side, and our domestic form (we have won the last five league games, and also won at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in between) doesn’t need a boost.

The result in Monaco should fortify the faith the current crop have in their abilities. Wins in Manchester should give them confidence ahead of the visits of Liverpool and Chelsea, while the other seven fixtures are ones we simply should win.

This year we aren’t in the same scrap for fourth – we have the momentum, a better starting position for these last nine games, and a more comfortable run-in than the teams around us.

Rather than losing players to injury the likes of Mesut Özil and Aaron Ramsey have returned and regained some of their best form.

Seven points behind Chelsea, who have a game in hand, is surely too much to make up. We’ve left ourselves too much to do there.

But what we can do is comfortably finish in the top four, and put Manchester City under a hell of a lot of pressure for second place.

With players fit and in form we have a great opportunity to win the FA Cup. Huge setbacks in Europe and at home didn’t stop us from winning that last year.

Maybe we could even have a bit of fun and make Chelsea sweat for the title.

We have it in us, and we won’t let the disappointment on a continental level affect us domestically.