Yet, perhaps this night was the nadir in Wenger's existence, the time when he finally realised this current side can never mix it with Barcelona and Real Madrid, let alone Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. Indeed the only mention of Barcelona on Wednesday night was from Arsenal fans, ever-so grateful it wasn't Pep Guardiola's men who their team had to face.
There have been warnings, certainly, this season, and alarmingly this wasn't even Arsenal's heaviest defeat. As much as critics will point to this chastening experience, and the 8-2 reverse at Old Trafford in August, perhaps the 3-2 defeat to Swansea in January was the true measure of Arsenal's steady decline. Far be it from being defeated to Stoke's aerial bombardment, Arsenal were outplayed, at their own game, by Brendan Rodgers' team built on a budget even Wenger would struggle to manage.
From now until May, every defeat for Arsenal is a catastrophe. Every reverse is another excuse for headline writers to proclaim Wenger's reign finished, his youth project having failed to reach the apex of Arsenal teams of past. Arsenal's season is dangling by a thread, or whatever it is that's holding Robin van Persie's hamstring together. Make no mistake, the Dutchman is all that separates this current Arsenal squad from mediocrity.
Civil War has raged on Arsenal message boards all season. Those that feel Wenger's time has reached it's conclusion are met with outrage from those who feel, after the success enjoyed in the first half of his Arsenal tenure, he is immune to such criticism, and always will be. Yet even those loyal supporters must have re-examined their beliefs this season. They would do well to recall the story of Brain Clough, who led Nottingham Forest to back-to-back European Cups in 1980, and the second tier of English football 13 years later. Arsenal - largely thanks to what Wenger has built over his tenure - are too big a club ever to sink to those lows, but the loss of Teddy Sheringham and Des Walker to Clough in the early 90's had just as much of an effect as Arsenal's sale of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last summer. How Arsenal could have done with their former captain to take control of Wednesday's game, just as he had done, as a 20-year-old, on Arsenal's last visit to the San Siro.
They say Wednesday's man-of-the-match Ibrahimovic doesn't perform against the best teams. This was no time to judge that.
Arsenal are a mighty 100/1 to win the Champions League in what lucks like a miracle bet.
