Immediately after Arsenal exited the Champions League for another year Aaron Ramsey said what we'd all been thinking when the last-16 draw was made on Monday, December 15 last year.
That was that playing Monaco for a place in the quarter-finals would be a little challenging but ultimately the Gunners would win without too much fuss.
Of course with hindsight the mere suggestion of that seems daft and totally disrespectful but we all thought it at the time.
What we should have realised is that Arsenal are a club currently managed by someone who has won one trophy - not counting the FA Community Shield - in nine years. The FA Cup is domestically prestigious, and Arsene Wenger should be applauded for reaching the semi-finals of this season's competition after winning it last year, but supporters want more than that.
Player Ratings: Monaco v Arsenal
For the last five seasons those who follow the Gunners have wanted nothing more than to see their side progress to the last eight of club football's most glamorous tournament.
They have watched as money, and heaps of it, has left their pockets on an annual basis before being deposited into the Bank of Arsenal only to find a poor rate of return and rising charges in the form of ticket prices year on year.
It could be argued that this was the first season in five years where Arsenal have faced weaker opposition and if they are drawn at the same stage next season to a side of similar standing to Monaco then they will win because this would have been a lesson learned.
It is, however, an argument those who want to find excuses for Wenger will subscribe to. That is because what losing to Bayern Munich (twice), AC Milan and Barcelona in the last-16 in the last four previous seasons should have taught the 65-year-old is that you cannot afford to waste opportunities no matter who you are playing.
The fixture against Monaco gave Wenger the opportunity to demonstrate what he had learned against those three icons of European football.
He had the chance to be ruthless at the Emirates in the first leg but instead he chose to hold back and wait for Leonardo Jardim's side to throw the first punch - it was a punch that left the Gunners dazed and confused and one they didn't regain consciousness from until they arrived at Stade Louis II and by then it was too late.
Dimitar Berbatov, who scored Monaco's second goal in the 3-1 win in north London in late February, suggested after that game that Arsenal had not taken the threat of him and his teammates seriously.
Ironically Per Mertesacker, whose mistake led to that goal, admitted after his side bowed out on away goals despite a superb 2-0 win on Tuesday night, that the Gunners had underestimated Monaco, adding that it only takes one bad performance to be dumped out of the Champions League.
Wenger knows that, after all, it was under his guidance that Arsenal reached the final of the competition in 2006 only to lose to Barcelona.
It is up to him now to ensure that firstly, his side qualifies for next season's competition, but secondly, and somewhat more importantly, that he takes the threat of the opposition - no matter who they may be - seriously, otherwise supporters of Arsenal might as well budget for yet another disastrous tour of Europe.
