Raya spares Arteta's blushes after frantic Rice right-back experiment

Ben White's injury was an unfortunate twist of momentum for Arsenal but it was how Arteta responded to it that made matters worse. The Arsenal boss brought Martin Zubimendi on and moved Declan Rice to right-back, removing the Gunners' key cog from the middle of the pitch.

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Now there was honest thinking in playing Rice at right-back. He had done it before in an Arsenal shirt - playing 90 minutes in that role during the 2-1 win over Brighton in December. Rice excelled in that game, so why couldn't he at West Ham?

Image: Arsenal's Declan Rice was moved to right-back after Ben White's injury

It ended up self-sucker punching Arsenal's early momentum and gave West Ham confidence. The Hammers improved in the transitions, with Crysencio Summerville running at Rice dangerously on two occasions.

A counter attack down the right, which bypassed the light midfield of Zubimendi and Myles Lewis-Skelly, saw Taty Castellanos test Raya into his first big save of the night. West Ham were back in the game, Arsenal were scrambled.

"The Arsenal midfield is now open and the right is not locked down," said Gary Neville at the time on co-commentary duty.

"It's obvious but I'd be thinking about getting Rice back into the middle of the park if I was Mikel Arteta."

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Highlights from the Premier League match between West Ham and Arsenal

That was rectified at half-time with Cristhian Mosquera coming in at right-back, putting Rice back in the middle. While that was due to Riccardo Calafiori's injury - that substitution was probably needed anyway even if the Italian had not been hurt.

Still, Arsenal struggled and to his credit - Arteta changed it again, this time positively. Zubimendi - who only had 39 minutes in the tank - was hooked off for Martin Odegaard. The Arsenal captain's return to the team was vital, and he set up Trossard's winner with a classy assist.

"The one on Zubi was tough," said Arteta. "But I really felt that we had to put two attacking midfielders in that moment to generate all the kind of issues and threats and thank God it worked out.

"Martin, coming in, he had an incredible impact in the game."

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Arsenal's Leandro Trossard scores a huge goal to give them the lead at West Ham

But still, Arteta's constant chopping and changing, not entirely his own fault but not handled in the best way, destabilised his team when it didn't need to. Mosquera could have simply replaced White and Arsenal may not have lost control of the game, with Rice in the middle of the pitch.

But in moving Rice's position, he effectively killed two positions, which was all West Ham needed for a foothold. At half-time, he had switched over his full-backs.

Redknapp: One of the biggest mistakes a manager could make

It all contributed to that Fernandes moment, where Raya ended up bailing out his manager. "If Arsenal hadn't won today, l think a lot of people will have looked at the 25 minutes when he played Declan Rice at right-back," said Jamie Redknapp.

"That was one of the biggest mistakes you could ever see a manager make at such an important time."

Gary Neville, speaking on his podcast, agreed.

He said: "This could be a game changer for Mikel Arteta. Obviously, winning the Champions League is huge, but it will not give him the credibility (that a Premier League title would give him)…but he got a little bit lucky.

"When he went and put Declan Rice at right back, straight away I thought, no.

"It's a no for a number of reasons. One is, you're taking the energy out of midfield and secondly, you're disrupting two positions rather than one.

"For Man Utd and Liverpool at the time, you can't move Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard, in a game of this magnitude, out of central midfield. They are forces of nature. You can't move Rice, and I am not giving him the same sort of level yet as Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard, but he has that level of influence on Arsenal.

"When Declan Rice went to right back, it didn't only do the things that I've just mentioned from an Arsenal perspective, I'm absolutely certain those West Ham players on the pitch will have got a boost, and also from a defensive point of view, you're taking away Rice's energy

"West Ham, all of a sudden, started to get space, they got room and the midfield looked a little bit more vacated.

"It was a really, really poor decision, and I'm comfortable to say that because Arteta accepted it was a poor decision by the fact he corrected it 15 minutes later at half-time. He knew it was a poor decision."

Arteta's big changes this season

Lessons need to be learned for Arteta in the coming weeks. He may not be faced with this kind of context again in the Premier League - given Arsenal's last two games are against relegated Burnley at home, then Crystal Palace three days before their Conference League final.

But the Champions League final is less than three weeks away. Arteta's substitutions in big moments have been questioned in the past.

In the Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City, his indecision and failure to change things soon enough in the second half helped contribute to City's pressure being too overwhelming. His triple change while drawing 1-1 in the April defeat to Bournemouth also looked panicked.

All managers get scrutinised for selections and substitutions - even Arteta's mentor Pep Guardiola was accused of overthinking in finals even at his peak.

It is also worth noting that Arteta has made plenty of positive and bold substitutions this season - including bringing 16-year-old Max Dowman on against Everton in March. But the Rice experiment was a reminder that there is a step too far.

Were it not for his goalkeeper - and a bit of help for VAR - Arsenal's Premier League title may be much further away than it is now.

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