I understand what Flamini was getting at mentioning about finding 2008 season's finale hard to take, it was so hard because we had the rug pulled away from under our feet just when we started to believe we were actually going to achieve, but to add perspective and has been mentioned already we have improved enormously on last season, points and football wise.

This sounds so self centred I know but I need healing time from this season, I need a line drawn underneath it but with all of the lessons learnt form it as well.

I watched MoTD last night and was angry about Manchester United winning the title, Manchester United had all the luck that we didn't have, Scholes should have been sent off, Rio should have conceded a penalty etc. however they played like they were never going to lose as well, a great belief in the squad, we had that as well when thing were going well, but we did not have it when it was needed.

Lineker mentioned that we only finished 4 points behind the Champions and that was all the mention we got, what I was thinking was  he should have said Arsenal should have won it by 10 points but lost it, then go back to the beginning of the season and make a montage of film clips of their football predictions and nail them to the wall.

It is always funny to me when we get criticized by the pundits for having a poor two seasons but always manage to finish above where they predicted we would end up in the first place and yet their favoured Liverpool end up below us again and yet are thought to have had a good season when they finished below their expected position.

In my opinion some reasons why we did not win title and not in any order of preference

Tony Adams type leadership qualities required on the pitch from our captain
Defensive qualities need to be sorted especially against the long balls
Squad was big enough but not deep enough of experience or quality needed to sustain FA, Champions League and Premiership assault
Refereeing mistakes went against us
not having a higher scoring ratio from the chances produced
Injuries
Luck just ran out.

Arsene will be hurting as much as anyone right now, believe me he is going to be a man on a mission next season, can you remember when he predicted when asked if Arsenal could go undefeated the whole season and he said yes it was possible, and we lost a few matches into the season, he was pilloried for it by everybody, with radio stations calling us arrogant and everything with the who do you think you are saying none of us cant beat you and at every opportunity it would be mentioned when we conceded any goals you would get a snide remark from the commentator about it.
 
Well what actually happened was that Arsene got asked the same question the following season, and the media waited as he said that it was possible, but improbable and smiled. The media loved it, they thought they had taught Wenger a lesson in humility and as you know the rest is history as we went on the 49 match unbeaten run for the whole season, did we get an apology...or any signs of humility from the media. No.

Arsene said at the pre season press conference that we may win the title when everyone was predicted we would be in 10 - 6th place behind spurs and Liverpool, but ok we failed to win it, however, I am going to have a wager that it may just happen next season if history has anything to do with it, we lost it by 4 points and a few more goals, or 5 points without outscoring Manchester United, and as you know and I know we have plenty of chances to have those points but had them snatched away for us and I don't think that will be the case next season.

Yes I still need healing time, it hurts like crazy, but the recovery is underway and the belief is starting to come back again, we need to see Arsene deal with our shortfalls from last season, I will wait with interest who we are going to get in and then it will be keep quiet about it and go about systematically winning the title, yes the healing process is really underway.