Aaron Ramsey believes a smarter approach and more luck with injuries would have had Arsenal in with a shot at the Premier League title this season.
The Gunners had sat on top of the table on 17 occasions during the campaign but disappointing results against top five teams saw them topple from the summit to as low as fifth.
Monday night's 3-0 win over Newcastle United has Arsenal a win away from securing fourth spot but it could have been a different story if key players like Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey himself had remained fit.
Welsh ace Ramsey also believes performing with a little bit more nous in big games would have had the Gunners challenging for the premiership.
"We've had a lot of injuries to key players at the same time which did affect us, but that's football. Things happen like that," he told Sky Sports News.
"Obviously you do have thoughts going through your mind about what could have been.
"The only games that have let us down this year are against the top-five away from home: if we'd managed to nick a couple of results against Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea the gap would have been a lot smaller and we'd have been right there.
"That'll be something to improve on next season - we'll need to be more streetwise in those games."
