Mikel Arteta received a long embrace from goalkeeper David Raya at the final whistle — a gesture that captured just how close Arsenal came to a costly slip-up at the London Stadium. Amid the post-match drama, two decisive moments in a five-minute spell defined the game: Raya’s remarkable stop and Leandro Trossard’s match-winning finish.
The save that will be remembered came from Matheus Fernandes, whose effort carried an expected-goals (xG) value of 0.54 — the kind of chance a goalkeeper would normally be expected to stop less often than not. Raya denied what would have been a huge blow to Arsenal’s title hopes, and five minutes later Trossard put the visitors ahead. Without Raya’s intervention (and a VAR reprieve earlier when Callum Wilson’s goal was ruled out), the afternoon might have ended very differently.
Arsenal should not, however, have been made to sweat so much. Ben White’s injury early on was an unfortunate disruption, but the way Arteta dealt with it is what shifted the game’s balance. He brought Martin Zubimendi on and redeployed Declan Rice from his midfield role to right-back. On paper that wasn’t an unreasonable move — Rice had filled that position well before — but in this match it drained Arsenal’s central presence and handed West Ham space to exploit.
West Ham quickly began to look livelier in transition. Crysencio Summerville repeatedly tested Rice down Arsenal’s right, and a break that bypassed a shallow midfield featuring Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly forced Raya into an early important save from Taty Castellanos. The midfield looked stretched and Arsenal’s control faded. Co-commentators and pundits noted that moving Rice out wide removed a crucial engine from the centre of the park and disrupted two positions instead of solving one.
Arteta partly corrected the error at half-time when Cristhian Mosquera came on at right-back, allowing Rice to shift back into midfield. That change was prompted by Riccardo Calafiori’s injury, but many observers felt it was a switch that should have been made sooner. Later in the game Arteta made another attacking tweak, withdrawing a tiring Zubimendi and bringing Martin Ødegaard on. Ødegaard’s introduction proved decisive: he provided the assist for Trossard’s strike that ultimately settled the match.
The tactical reshuffle drew sharp criticism after the game. Jamie Redknapp described the experiment of playing Rice at right-back as one of the biggest mistakes a manager can make at such a crucial moment, and Gary Neville suggested the decision removed energy from midfield and boosted West Ham’s confidence. Both pundits argued that Rice’s influence in central areas is too important to sacrifice during a period when Arsenal needed control.
Arteta defended his substitutions as reactive to the circumstances, and he praised Ødegaard’s impact on the contest. Still, the sequence served as a reminder of the fine margins in big matches: good intentions and tactical flexibility can backfire when they unsettle the team’s core structure.
This episode adds to a season in which Arteta’s in-game decisions have at times been questioned — from hesitations in previous cup finals to mid-game changes that looked panicked — but it’s worth noting he has also made bold, productive calls this campaign. The Rice experiment was a step too far on this occasion, yet Arsenal ultimately escaped with three points thanks to Raya’s heroics and a crucial assist from their captain.
With the Premier League run-in and a Champions League final approaching, the lessons are clear: Arteta must balance tactical flexibility with protecting the spine of his team. Had Raya not produced that match-defining stop (and had VAR not intervened earlier), Arsenal’s title bid might have looked very different today.