It has been the over-riding narrative of this season. This was the year that Arsenal’s peers weren’t at the races. Manchester City stumbled when Kevin De Bruyne got hurt, Manchester United haven’t been able to crack the top four, Liverpool and Chelsea are in mid-table.

And, still, Arsenal aren’t competing for the title. And, in fact, they haven’t been higher than third since January. The FA Cup ended in a quarter-final home defeat to Watford and the Champions League run had its usual finale in the round of 16.

Ahead of them in the table are Tottenham, their hated North London rivals, and Leicester City, a club with a wage bill less than a third of the Gunners’. And that’s a key factor. Were the Gunners outpaced by free-spending City or Chelsea, it might be different. But finishing third or fourth in these circumstances only serves to heighten the anger.

And, as evidenced by yesterday’s protest and even a cursory glance at social media, most of it is directed at Arsene Wenger and his seeming impermeability when it comes to criticism from above.

City are getting a new manager. So too are Chelsea. Liverpool got one last autumn. Manchester United should get one. Yet Arsenal appear stuck in a perennial Groundhog Day.

Faced with these questions, Wenger grew testy on Friday. He pointed out that Arsenal’s away form was worthy of champions (maybe so, but Spurs and Leicester actually have better records on the road) and that their poor home form was down to the negativity of the Emirates crowd.

He went on to talk about his loyalty to the club, the countless offers he received and the fact that, when Arsenal borrowed hundreds of millions to finance the building of the Emirates, one of the loan conditions was that Wenger stuck around.

The sense is that Wenger will weather this storm, just as he has done the previous ones. He will point to Alex Iwobi’s potential, Olivier Giroud’s goals, Mesut Ozil’s assists, Hector Bellerin’s development and the fact that Jack Wilshere’s return will be “like a new signing”.

And as long as the money keeps pouring in, as long as there are top-four finishes, full houses at the Emirates and Champions League runs to the knockout rounds, Arsenal will be very profitable. And the value of the club will continue to rise.

And Stan Kroenke, the man who ultimately calls the shots, will be satisfied and will see no need to kill the golden goose.

If Leicester don’t win today at Old Trafford – and, despite the hype, there are plenty of reasons to believe they won’t – they can be crowned champ-ions tomorrow evening. Winning your first title in 132 years of history while watching Chelsea host Tottenham won’t be quite the same as doing it on the pitch, but it will be special nonetheless. And that’s what will happen if Spurs don’t come away with the three points.

It may well end up as a dead rubber, but it will be interesting to see how Mauricio Pochettino’s men react a week after that home draw with West Brom. What struck you most, particularly after the Baggies’ equaliser, was how disjointed Spurs looked. And you wonder if maybe the old cliche about needing vocal veterans to whip some rear ends into shape doesn’t have a grain of truth in it.

Pochettino has built a team without such characters. The few potentially, nasty scruff-of-the-neck types – Dele Alli, Eric Dier – are very young. The more established players, guys like Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen, are great players, but not exactly cut from the Paul Ince/Roy Keane cloth.

So do you blame Pochettino for not stocking his side with Type A personalities?

Probably not. Because it may well be that Spurs have proved to be so cohesive and effective for so much of the season precisely because he didn’t have such “colourful” characters in the side. And while perhaps a guy like that might have righted the ship against West Brom, it’s possible that they would never have been in this position with too many outspoken veterans in their midst.

IT’S dawning on everyone. Never mind the better-than-a-goal-a-game scoring rate. This could well be Cristiano Ronaldo’s final season at the Bernabeu. And it’s entirely possible he may end it empty-handed.

If that happens, his trophy haul from seven years at Real Madrid will amount to one league title, two Spanish Cups and a Champions League.

Not bad for a mere mortal. But for a guy who has had the sort of Galactico supporting cast – and no fewer than three Champions League-winning managers – it’s somewhat under whelming, even if you factor in the enormous mitigating circumstance of competing against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona.

The worst part about is that he may not be there to do something about it. Having missed Real Madrid’s scoreless away draw with Manchester City, he’s a doubt for Tuesday’s return leg. His thigh injury has become a national obsession in Spain. The Catalan press, always quick to goad their Madrid rivals, reported that he reached out to doctors close to Barcelona. Real Madrid have denied this. Others speculated that he is seeking stem cell treatment. On Friday, video emerged of Ronaldo leaving a Madrid clinic while appearing to hide in the boot of an SUV.

It’s cloak and dagger stuff. And the stakes are high. At the end of the season, he enters the final two years of his contract, that moment when conventional wisdom, and good governance, suggest you either extend your deal or move elsewhere.

Keeping Ronaldo means commit- ting to close to £30m a year for at least three, more likely four, seasons and getting nothing in return when he does leave, either to retire or go elsewhere. Cashing in might fetch a transfer fee of £80m, and big savings on wages, but it would leave a big Cristiano-shaped hole in Madrid’s attack. The heir apparent, James Rodriguez, is having a horrendous season and could be on his way in the summer if they find a taker. Karim Benzema has a raft of off-the-pitch issues, like a court case which saw him accused of trying to blackmail a France team-mate over a sex tape.

Whatever happens, there’s a decision to be made. And if he does end up going and Madrid end the season empty-handed, the fact he was sidelined during crunch time will only make things more disappointing.