The Gunners will complete a sixth successive season without any silverware and their spot at European football's top table is no longer the formality it seemed a matter of weeks ago as they go into their last Premier League match of the campaign.
Manchester City beat Stoke on Tuesday to leapfrog Arsenal in third place and should the Londoners finish fourth, they will have to negotiate a tricky Champions League play-off in August to qualify for the lucrative group stage.
Previously that qualification has never been in doubt but Arsenal's self-belief, air of invincibility and undying faith in manager Arsene Wenger to deliver the goods have been shattered over a damaging three-month period.
Arsenal face their toughest close season since Wenger moved to North London nearly 15 years ago and there has even been some media speculation that the Frenchman might decide to leave the Emirates before the next campaign starts in August.
Arsenal supporters have done the previously unthinkable this season too - complained to radio phone-ins about Wenger, booed him and his team and criticised the board after a 6.5 percent price hike for already expensive season tickets.
These are not settled days on the pitch or in the boardroom at Emirates Stadium and while tangible success is tantalisingly close, it is not close enough for many supporters.
SHOCK DEFEAT
Tensions began to mount in February as Arsenal were in contention for an unprecedented quadruple haul of trophies with the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup all in their sights.
However, a shock 2-1 defeat by Birmingham City in the League Cup Final on February 27 triggered what has become a crisis and less than two weeks later, Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona and the FA Cup by Manchester United.
Only two wins in 10 league games since the end of February saw them tumble out of the title race with Sunday's 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa emphasising all their failings in one match - typically superb passing moves, resulting in too few goals and too many defensive errors costing them points.
Arsenal have a potentially superb goalkeeper in Wojciech Szczesny, talented youngsters like Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott and the wonderful skills of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri but too many others have failed to deliver and the collective lacks a killer instinct.
Wenger has been perplexed with how a team that played superbly to beat Barcelona 2-1 in the first leg of their Champions League defeat could squander a 4-0 lead at Newcastle United to draw 4-4, or be 3-1 up at arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur and be pegged back to 3-3.
TORTURED SOUL
Bafflingly, they failed to score against Sunderland or Blackburn Rovers in 0-0 home draws, suffered a poor defeat at Bolton Wanderers, conceded a stoppage time penalty to Liverpool in a 1-1 draw and yet beat Manchester United 1-0.
Wenger has looked a tortured
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