Arsenal Vs Wolves: Literally, only one thing matters

Arsenal travel to Wolves on Wednesday night with a chance of moving into the top four. At this stage in the season, only one thing matters: the result.

The saying often goes around when pundits or media members start to talk in what is perceived to be an overly analytical manner. If the stats start to overtake the emotion, those that are not so numerically inclined begin to rear away. And they often always say the same thing, ‘at the end of the day, there is only one stat that counts,’ implying that the result is the only thing that matters.

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For much of the season, of course, that is not actually true. Although the table is formulated based off of wins, draws and losses, over an extended period, it is not the results that will determine a team’s success. Rather, it is the performances that drive those results.

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It is why some managers will say things like ‘despite the defeat, there are positives to take.’ They understand the importance of the performance and the impact that replicating the performance — and not the result — will have.

All of this being said, there are some matches where such logic flies right out of the window. Statistics, processes, analysis is all well and good. And you can explore those aspects of football until the cows come home. But sometimes, there really is only one thing matters.

For Arsenal, that is very much true this Wednesday night, when they travel to Wolves with a chance to move into fourth place with a draw or win.

At this stage in the season, the performance goes out the window. When Arsenal beat Watford 1-0 a little over a week ago, they put in one of their worst displays of the year. They were the worse team against middling-Premier League opposition who had a man disadvantage for almost 80 minutes. And the lone goal was a blocked clearance from the goalkeeper.

But come full-time, no one cared. No one spared a thought to the lack of quality in attacking areas. No one cared that Watford dominated the midfield. No one mentioned that Unai Emery had to completely change his approach just to keep hold of Watford. Because none of it mattered. Arsenal had won.

The same goes for Wednesday night against Wolves. As literally as is possible, only one thing matters. And if it goes the Gunners’ way, they could put themselves into an excellent position to grasp a top-four finish. A win will move them into fourth place, two points clear of Chelsea, who play Manchester United at the weekend, with just three games remaining. They would also only be one point behind Spurs.

It sounds simple, moronic even, to say, but Emery must focus on one thing: winning the game. It doesn’t matter how. It doesn’t matter by what scoreline. It doesn’t matter with what kind of performance. Just win the game. Please.