Only next Saturday evening will we know for sure just how well Wolves have managed a hellish week of games and injuries.
But despite a home defeat in its opening fixture, Gary O’Neil can claim it started in hugely positive fashion.
Whether or not his team selection for Saturday evening’s visit of Arsenal can be categorised as a gamble is open to debate, given the paucity of options available.
But leaving two of his most experienced players on the substitutes’ bench for a game when he was already denied the presence of a host of stars through injury was certainly a brave decision.
He will never know what a difference Mario Lemina and Pablo Sarabia would have made from the start in Saturday evening’s fixture between Arsenal’s near-full-strength team and a Wolves side that at times appeared to be held together by a couple of sticking plasters and a few lengths or surgical tape.
But having seen his side push the visitors all the way to the fifth minute of stoppage time, when Martin Odegaard put the game out of their reach with Arsenal’s second goal in a 2-0 win, O’Neil can at least be sure that the decision will not be remembered as one that backfired.
Just how much it will pay off will become clear over the course of two theoretically less daunting meetings with Bournemouth and Luton over the coming days.
What we do know, because O’Neil told us, is that, had Sarabia and Lemina started against the Premier League title-chasers, it is very unlikely they would have been able to start again against Bournemouth on Wednesday.
Lemina only joined the action against Arsenal on 51 minutes (Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)
O’Neil clearly prioritised the meeting with his former club in a game Wolves in theory have a greater chance of winning.
It seemed like a sensible call. And while the potential benefits of starting the pair against Arsenal will remain unknown, it is difficult to imagine that, even with the experienced duo, Wolves could have summoned a better effort against a side gunning for the Premier League crown.
Wolves stood toe to toe with Mikel Arteta’s side, created some promising openings and, even though they came up short, left the field to a rousing ovation from home supporters.
“It was an incredible performance,” said O’Neil. “I think it even probably exceeded my expectation of what I thought we’d be able to produce.
“I’m very proud of what they produced.”
What we also know is that Wolves’ squad is creaking as the season’s finish line hones into view, so none of the decisions O’Neil had to make ahead of or during the clash with Arsenal were easy.
He had warned beforehand that neither Sarabia nor Lemina, both of whom are nursing injuries born of a long season of toil, would be able to play three full games in the space of eight days.
He decided the Arsenal fixture was the one in which the pair should play only limited minutes.
He knew that Hwang Hee-chan’s recovery from a hamstring problem was only completed sufficiently for him to play for around 45 minutes.
He chose to use them from the start instead of from the substitutes’ bench and duly had to withdraw the South Korean a few minutes into the second half.
So with Craig Dawson, Nelson Semedo, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Matheus Cunha and Pedro Neto all sidelined, along with young forward Leon Chiwome, O’Neil chose to weaken his side further in order to improve their chances in the two games ahead.
He now hopes that the decision will give him greater options on Wednesday and again at the weekend.
“I was trying to pick a team for this game with the rest of the week in mind; trying to juggle,” O’Neil admitted.
“There’s normally 100 minutes in a game now, so there’s going to be 300 minutes that need to be played.
“And when there’s only 10 senior outfield players available that can complete 90 minutes, trying to juggle how you’re going to get that 10 plus the younger players to give us our chance of picking up the most points possible is tricky.
“I felt we would be able to produce that high-energy performance, and get a couple of them a bit of a rest, and help Pablo’s groin settle down even further.
“Hopefully it will do them both good to have not had to go through 90 minutes and hopefully they’ll both be feeling a bit better come Wednesday.”
With Rayan Ait-Nouri also a potential starter against Bournemouth having been limited to a brief cameo on Saturday, O’Neil should have a few more pleasant decisions to make on Wednesday — and he has not entirely ruled Cunha out of contention either.
None of it will guarantee his side victory as they continue to cope without several of their star men.
But a calculated gamble of resting extra mainstays, plus the positive vibes from a fine effort in defeat, leaves them with a chance of claiming success from the toughest of weeks.
(Top photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
