Arsene Wenger marked his 750th game in charge of the club with a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Norwich but some sections of the crowd protested against his reign during the match.
Although Wenger has achieved good things during his time with the Gunners, including league and cup doubles and an unbeaten season, no Premier League trophy in 12 years has seen his tenure questioned more and more in recent years.
With title rivals Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United all underperforming it was seen by many as Arsenal's best opportunity to win the league in a long time. Credit to Leicester, they fully deserve to be top on merit regardless of how we have done but there is no denying that we should have done a lot better than we did.
There are no easy games in the Premier League but to comfortably beat Leicester away and Manchester United at home, and then lose against West Brom and West Ham really is frustrating. In some games I truly believe if we'd had a top class striker we could've turned some of the defeats into wins and things may have looked different, but it's all ifs and buts.
It isn't even the results at times but more some of the performances. Even against Norwich we looked void of ideas for at least the first 45 minutes and, although I was delighted with the win, we should be creating a lot more in attack.
The introduction of Danny Welbeck proved the difference as he came off the bench after 56 minutes before netting the winner and being named man of the match.
But Arsenal started slowly and it was their opponents who created the first real chance of the match after five minutes. The lively Nathan Redmond took a touch before shooting low towards goal, but Petr Cech did enough to keep the ball out with a decent save.
The Gunners tried to respond with Alex Iwobi shooting across the face of goal before Olivier Giroud saw a shot well blocked by Russell Martin.
A planned protest took place after 12 minutes as it is 12 years since we last won the league title, but some sections of the crowd disagreed and chanted in support of their long-serving manager. In some ways I can understand people wanting change but the protest itself was a bit pathetic.
On the pitch Arsenal were being reduced to half chances as Alexis Sanchez and Mohamed Elneny both had shots blocked by the defence, while Laurent Koscielny sent his headed effort over the bar.
Norwich had the best chance of the first half after 42 minutes as Cech showed great reactions to keep out Redmond's volley and push it away from danger. Redmond tried his luck again in the closing minutes of the first half but sent his effort wide as the scores remained goalless at half-time.
Per Mertesacker limped off within five minutes of the restart, with Gabriel coming on in his place and Koscielny taking the captain's armband before a substitution from the hosts raised a few eyebrows. Iwobi had been one of the more lively players on the pitch for the Gunners yet he was withdrawn after 55 minutes, with some fans wishing Giroud had been sacrificed instead.
Leaving Giroud on actually paid off though as he set up Welbeck for the winner shortly before the hour mark, with what was Arsenal's first shot on target in the match. Giroud cushioned a header down for the England striker to hit on the half-volley beyond John Ruddy and into the bottom corner of the net.
Norwich tried to find a way back into the game and only a superb sliding block from Gabriel denied substitute Dieumerci Mbokani a decent goal-scoring opportunity.
Arsenal had two chances in quick succession to double their advantage. A sublime pass from Mesut Ozil released Alexis Sanchez, but the Chilean shot straight at Ruddy. Ozil then came close with a volley, but his effort was excellently tipped over the bar by Ruddy, or at least it seemed to be but a goal kick was given.
At the other end Norwich were not creating too many chances and Sebastien Bassong's off-target header was about as good as it got for the visitors in the closing stages.
There were more protests against Wenger 12 minutes from time but they did little to have a positive or negative affect from what was in large parts a dull game.
Arsenal could've added a second eight minutes from time when Giroud set up Elneny, but the midfielder's strike was well tipped over by Ruddy.
Ozil picked up a silly booking five minutes from time following a challenge on Gary O'Neil and then turned his back on the referee.
The remaining minutes faded out with very little drama, although Ruddy did push forward in the hope of helping his side to an equaliser at the death but to no avail. Norwich remain in the bottom three but do have a game in hand over some of their opponents so could yet beat the drop.
The win moves Arsenal up into third place with just two games remaining, with both second place and finishing outside the top four both still possibilities for Wenger's men.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Norwich fan Adam Edwards believes his side were not clinical enough in the final third to have got anything out of the game.
"Norwich gave a solid defensive performance but produced only a couple of possible goal scoring opportunities," said Edwards.
"Norwich looked the more likely to score in the first half, but Arsenal's second half pressure warranted the win.
"Poor touches in the final third prevented Norwich putting more pressure on a team struggling with protesting supporters."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Depending on other results and how we perform in our final two league matches, we could finish anywhere from second down to sixth but as we haven't claimed top spot it could be seen as a failure regardless of where we end up.
I don't think the protests really achieved much but the criticism is undoubtedly going to continue over the coming weeks and months, but for now I just want to focus my energy on getting behind the boys ahead of the team's trip to top-four rivals Manchester City.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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