Let's start with a little trip down memory lane.
I still remember when a Boro fan from Stockton wrote into the now defunct football weekly 90 Minutes to state that the magazine ought to revise their prediction of 11th for the infamous class of 1996-97.
The fan was convinced that Curtis Fleming, Steve Vickers and Robbie Mustoe were quality players of the highest level (which is clearly overdoing it, love them though we do) and that Boro had earned the right to be classified as potential treble challengers (which was really overdoing it, love that though we would have).
Yet you couldn't blame him for getting excited. For he wrote that letter in the middle of September 1996, when we had recorded four straight victories, conceding just two goals and scoring a remarkable nineteen. Even if fifteen of those goals came against then fourth tier Hereford United and two struggling Premier League sides who would ironically survive at our expense.
Then, as 90 Minutes' reply put it, poor Vickers “gifted three points to the Arsenal” as Boro were comfortably swept away in a 2-0 defeat to the Gunners. Being the second highest scorers in the league with eleven goals at the Riverside had counted for little against a strong side who closed down our foreign legion brilliantly and poked holes in our defence. Struggling Southampton did the exact same at The Dell the following week and our league form began its downward spiral.
Something similar is extremely unlikely to happen today, particularly with our foundations being much stronger (albeit almost wholly in second tier football), but I couldn't help but get deja vu at the final whistle on Sunday.
Marching into the Emirates on the back of SIX successive victories, with twelve scored, just three conceded and a great triumph at the home of the Premier League Champions in the bag, we had every reason to feel confident.
Perhaps overconfident. The talk in the run up to the game, especially from the broadsheets, was of Towering Totem Tomlinho taking down the Gunners and Aitor Karanka claiming another Premier League scalp. Now, no one's doubting Lee Tomlin's ability or his improvement under Karanka, but come on; one great turn and shot against City and he's suddenly England's Next Great Hope? Please.
It's easy to say in hindsight, but perhaps AK, Tomlin and Boro needed their bubble burst to put things in perspective and remind them that promotion really is the priority. And if one casts a more critical eye over that great Etihad victory, one will find that City were going through a barren spell of just one league win in six, with a home draw and a near home defeat against struggling Burnley and Hull respectively.
By contrast, since losing at Stoke in December, Arsenal had won ten out of thirteen league and cup games prior to facing Boro. Not that this would deter Boro - “so much for the form book” is an often-uttered cliché – but this in-form Arsenal team were an entirely different beast to an out-of-form City.
This was not Eastlands, where Boro were able to match City's patient, pressing passing game with extremely stingy defending, penetrating midfield breaks and moments of Tomlin magic. Hampered by additional and unwanted nerves stemming from increased expectations and a raised profile, Boro found themselves feeling the full force of Arsene Wenger's classy collective from the very first whistle.
Inspired by the brilliant Santi Cazorla, the Gunners burst out of the blocks at a high tempo and, once Olivier Giroud's brace had established their lead, comfortably saw the game out, threatening to add to their margin of victory through a mixture of calm possession and penetrative, visionary passing.
It felt like tiki-taka with a difference, a combination of playmakers and match-winners who dreamed to dare, and effectively silenced the opposition's own attack through graceful dictation rather than dogged defending. If Boro weren't a threat, it wasn't so much because they limply folded. It was more because their style of play and mentality were not geared to take the Gunners on at their own game.
Arsenal's calm assertion took its toll on the entire Boro team, barring the excellent Tomas Mejias. Tomlin was virtually invisible, and Jelle Vossen and Kike fared little better. Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Patrick Bamford were all negligible as attacking threats, with Bamford really feeling the pressure from having to repeatedly drop deep to try and win the ball.
Even Boro's central defensive pairing were not as impressive as we hoped they'd be, Kenneth Omeruo's wretched distribution and uneven positional sense casting a shadow over an otherwise determined display from the Nigerian.
To their credit, our flankers – particularly Ryan Fredericks, George Friend and substitute Adam Reach – battled gamely to inject life into a blunted Boro. Yet it was not Fredericks' cross and Kike's post-hitting header that lingered longest, but poor Albert Adomah's short run and shot that flew wide. He had tried, and failed, to recapture the Adomah of old, gradually left behind after AK reigned in the attacking instincts of our wide men in a successful bid to tighten us up.
Now, to a point, there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when it's part of a platform to contain opposition attacks and establish dictation. But what happens when the team comes up against a side with the sharpness to deny them control and the vision to pierce their back line? And what if you don't have the requisite pace to counter theirs? (Here's where AK gambling on Yanic Wildschut or Emilio Nsue might not have been such a bad bet.)
Another big question AK should ask his men is why, after having repeatedly proven themselves full of attacking options, Boro looked almost entirely out of ideas once Tomlin was snuffed out.
Yes, I know we were playing Arsenal in their own backyard. Yes, I know teams have off days. But that doesn't mean that the game can be just swept under the carpet as if it never happened. It's the “We got a bad result, but no problem, we'll get it right next time” attitude.
The team may very well get the right result next time. But that's not the point. The point is, the longer you paper over cracks, the more likely they are to come back and bite you in the proverbial... as Liverpool found out last year when Steven Gerrard slipped against Chelsea.
And as we may find out, if we don't pull ourselves together and set out to right the wrongs at Birmingham and during every match that follows.
Here's hoping for much better at St. Andrews.
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