When Arsenal face off against Bayern Munich in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, they'll be heavy underdogs to advance. A loss in the round of 16 is a yearly tradition for Arsenal. In each of the past six seasons Arsene Wenger's team has been eliminated at the first sudden-death opportunity.
It's a remarkable degree of consistency: always good enough to get out of the group stages, never good enough to go any further. This is a mirror image of a time period domestically during which Arsenal has been ruthlessly efficient and capable of regularly qualifying for the Champions League, but completely unable to mount a title bid. Arsenal are consistently "pretty good."