Freddie Ljungberg flashed a smile as he took his seat in the dugout and, on vacating it, might have been excused a roll of the eyes.
Arsenal responded to their interim coach’s presence up to a point, showing a greater appetite to play on the front foot than in the latter days of Unai Emery’s tenure, but there is no one on earth who could correct their fundamental problems in a matter of days.
They were battered in the last half-hour by Norwich, who came to dominate after a tentative start, and would have been sent packing without a brilliant goalkeeping display by Bernd Leno. Yet again one wondered where exactly they would be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who equalised twice, and the overriding sense is that half a team of new players would probably make more difference than whoever the next manager might be.