Chris Hatherall: Hope fizzles out as same old Arsenal reappears

Arsenal fans returned to the Emirates yesterday like an adult approaching a 1,000-piece puzzle they’d hastily unwrapped at Christmas but not got round to tackling yet.

They had no expectation of seeing the whole picture any time soon and little hope of the blue sky taking shape; they just wanted to see that the corner pieces had been identified among a baffling pile of upturned cardboard shapes.