Arsenal narrowly edged their way past West Ham United on Sunday afternoon to move to the brink of winning the Premier League title, although Micah Richards found one or two of Mikel Arteta’s decisions during the match ‘strange’.
Arteta’s outfit are now on the precipice of a historic double. They need just two more results to go their way in the title race to wrap things up on that front, while they will face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final at the end of the month.
Sunday’s nail-biting victory over West Ham moved them another step closer to winning the league, something they haven’t managed for over 20 years. That said, the outcome in East London could easily have been very different had a number of situations not gone Arsenal’s way.
Micah Richards didn’t understand Mikel Arteta decision during West Ham vs Arsenal
Leandro Trossard’s 83rd-minute strike saved Arsenal from a desperate situation that they’d arguably created for themselves. The Gunners dominated the opening 25 minutes at the London Stadium, and a goal simply felt inevitable during this period.
However, Ben White was then forced off the pitch, and Arteta opted for the unconventional move of bringing Martin Zubimendi on and moving Declan Rice to right-back. Arsenal subsequently lost all control of the match and didn’t start to mount any serious attacks again until the final 20 minutes of the encounter.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, Richards claimed that this decision from Arteta was ‘strange’, although the pundit did credit the Spaniard for trying to fix it with his half-time substitution.
“And it was interesting that he put Declan Rice, didn’t he, at full back to cover for a while,” Richards said.
“And then realised he was missing Declan’s energy, probably in the middle of the park, and changed things around at half-time.
“But ultimately, all that really matters is that they got the three points and got over the line.
Does he need criticism for putting Declan Rice right back, or does he need praise for saying, I made a mistake, let’s change it, put Mosquera right back and Rice back into midfield?
“It was all scratching our heads because in the Champions League game, Declan Rice went to sort of a right of the three at the back. I don’t know if you guys remember it.
“But then putting Declan Rice right-back, where he’s not going to influence the game. And I know we’re talking about inverted full-back, so Lewis-Skelly does it a lot, doesn’t he? But I just thought it was a strange decision.
“But then he changed it at half-time, so he probably needs a little bit of praise for that.”
What was Mikel Arteta’s thought process behind Declan Rice position change?
On paper, Arteta’s decision was bizarre, and it played out disastrously. Arsenal were overrun in midfield for the final 15 minutes of the first half, while they lost all semblance of control and dominance.
However, there must have been some logical thinking behind Arteta’s choice to move Rice to right-back. The rationale was probably that because the Gunners had control and dominance of territory, they were better off with a right-back who could add more value in possession than Cristhian Mosquera.
A defensive full-back wasn’t needed, although someone with some level of mobility probably was. Thus, Rice made some sense from that point of view.
However, what became clear was that Arsenal had largely enacted this control through Rice’s presence in midfield. What then unfolded was that they missed their talismanic midfielder’s energy in the middle of the park.
It was a disastrous call, but he ultimately rectified it.
