Very revisionist. Talking down the cups has suddenly become fashionable when funnily enough losing the FA Cup to the Scum in 96 sticks in the throat as much as losing the league to them in 97. Yes in 97 we were the closest to winning no.19 but we also had a good shot at it in 02 and were in the running until we lost at Spurs. Last year we achieved our best ever EPL points tally but now the bar has been upped since 97 in terms of points needed to win the EPL.