Arsenal’s season will be judged on results and nothing else

Sporting CP’s heartbroken players slowly trudged around the perimeter of the Estadio Jose Alvalade pitch, applauding the home supporters.

In return, they were given a rousing standing ovation, just like they had been immediately after Kai Havertz’s 91st-minute winner for Arsenal, when the majority of those in the stadium warmly applauded and then cheered their team in defiance.

Sporting’s fans are not an easy bunch to please. You may remember a few of them attacked players at the club’s training ground after the team failed to qualify for the Champions League in 2018, for example.

But here, after Sporting’s biggest match in Europe for 21 years (when they lost the UEFA Cup final to CSKA Moscow), they were delighted with their team’s endeavours. The travelling Arsenal fans, in terms of the performance their side produced, were likely to be less enamoured.

And yet, in what is a pertinent message for anyone who doubts the validity of Arsenal’s potential trophy-lifting success this season due to their football not containing enough swashbuckle or entertainment, it was the visitors who earned a crucial victory. Arsenal were pretty poor but won, Sporting were pretty good but lost… which camp would you rather be in, standing ovation or not?

It’s a pretty obvious point to make, but given the rabid discourse around Arsenal’s reliance on set pieces or their often sludgy travails in open play, it needs reiterating; winning is all that matters.

Yes, Mikel Arteta has sacrificed artistry and excitement for industry and effectiveness, and while their tactics are designed to reduce the risk of defeat, the approach comes loaded with risk in that if Arsenal aren’t successful — and without an excellent performance from the returning David Raya in goal they might not have won here — they will be remembered as timid losers if results aren’t what they hope.

But as things stand, with only seven-and-a-bit weeks of the campaign to go, they remain in pole position both in the Premier League and in this Champions League tie.

While Sporting were generally considered the weakest of the eight remaining Champions League sides, thus Arsenal were in theory handed the easiest draw, winning at Estadio Jose Alvalade is a notable achievement.

As they played Highway to Hell 40 minutes before kick-off in a mostly empty stadium while a cuddly lion furiously waved a flag, this wasn’t exactly Galatasaray, ‘Welcome to Hell’, etc, but the intimidation factor lay in Sporting’s home form.

They had won 17 in a row at home in all competitions, scoring 53 goals, conceding just eight and beating Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and Marseille along the way. Sporting had also won all five of their Champions League home matches this season, including a stunning 5-0 comeback victory over Bodo/Glimt in the last 16 having lost the first leg 3-0 in Norway.

Given Arsenal’s defeats in the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City and the FA Cup quarter-finals to Southampton, this fixture looked to be taking place at the perfect time for the Portuguese side.

However, while Arteta’s side understandably respected that ridiculous home record by playing it pretty tight, aware that the pacey transition play of Luis Suarez, Pedro Goncalves, Francisco Trincao and Geny Catamo (68 goals between them in all competitions this season) carried sizeable potential to hurt Arsenal, Sporting probably paid Arsenal too much respect in return.

The hosts were happy to cede possession and attempt either brisk counters or long balls over the top from the centre-backs (this was actually far more effective but, other than Maximiliano Araujo smacking the bar via David Raya’s fingertips following a gorgeous outside-of-the-boot pass from burgeoning young centre-back Ousmane Diomande in the opening stages, Sporting fluffed their lines from these).

David Raya was in incredible form for ArsenalPATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images

The home side had just 44 per cent possession, the seventh time they have dipped under 50 this season, with five of those coming in the Champions League, such as when they gave Paris Saint-Germain 75 per cent possession but still beat them 2-1 at home in January.

With Sporting well aware of their underdog status and Arsenal feeling fragile after successive defeats, all of this respect nonsense led to, frankly, a dog of a game that felt like anything but a Champions League quarter-final.

In the first half, the two sides had nine touches in the opposition box combined and the whole piece had only yielded a pathetic 0.44 expected goals (xG) tally combined by the 80th-minute mark in a match that had you questioning whether the away goals rule had been reintroduced.

“In the end, the most effective team won,” Colombian striker Luis Suarez said.

“We lacked speed in our passes and it was difficult to finish, so they won the game.”

Sporting are still well in this tie. They may be limited in how they can control a match with the ball against top-level opposition, but their threat on the counter and their impressive young centre-back pairing of Diomande (age 22) and Goncalo Inacio (24) means they can frustrate Arsenal again at the Emirates next week.

Arsenal will probably need to show more variety in attack, move the ball quicker in midfield and enlist a little more artistry, perhaps via the returning Bukayo Saka or an earlier substitute introduction for Max Dowman (assuming he doesn’t start), given the 16-year-old remains their best hope for unpredictable creativity right now.

But if none of those things happen and Arsenal progress to a second successive Champions League semi-final, they’ll be the ones getting a standing ovation.

Forget the performances, forget how they score their goals and ignore the noise; Arsenal’s season will be defined purely on results. This one, coming off the back of two hugely disappointing, trophy-ending and potentially derailing defeats, was one of their best of the season. Yep, that’s all that matters.

“It’s now the moment, when you have a difficult moment in the season, to show what we are made of,” Arteta said after Southampton. “Now we have to show who we are.” They did exactly that in Portugal.