There will be no fairytale ending for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal

Arsenal missed the opportunity to send Arsene Wenger off with a trophy, losing 1-0 in the second leg of their Europa League semifinal against Ateltico Madrid.

Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday with a 2-1 aggregate loss to Atletico Madrid, ensuring Arsene Wenger’s 22-year tenure will end not with a trophy, and a return to the Champions League, but with a battle with Burnley for sixth place in the Premier League.

The Gunners were the better side for the majority of their semifinal, punished for their failure to capitalize on their chances and a comically bad series of defensive mistakes to gift Antoine Griezmann an equalizer late in the first leg.

They started well again this week, but as has so often been the case with Wenger’s teams, they were largely unable to turn some excellent passing sequences into clear-cut chances. Jan Oblak barely had to make a save.

Atleti, meanwhile, were as clinical as Arsenal were profligate, Diego Costa finishing his first chance of note after exploiting Hector Bellerin’s poor positioning. And when Atleti take a lead, well, you know what happens next.

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Wenger has deserved all the praise that has been showered upon him in the weeks since he announced he would be stepping down at the end of the season, but this sort of not-quite-good-enough performance is part of his legacy too.

Arsenal face Burnley at home next, before trips to Leicester and Huddersfield to close the Wenger era. As underwhelming a prospect as that may be, the sense of anticlimax is in keeping the second half of the Frenchman’s reign.

Perhaps this is an appropriate way for Wenger to go out, fighting admirably, playing beautifully, but never quite showing the conviction, the nastiness, required to win the biggest prizes against the best teams.