In and among the chaos of the London Stadium scenes, Mikel Arteta gave his goalkeeper David Raya a huge embrace. “It’s the hug he deserves,” said Gary Neville.There were so many flashpoints from the game that leaves Arsenal on the brink of the Premier League title. While Callum Wilson’s disallowed goal will dominate the headlines – there were two big moments in five crucial minutes that sent Arsenal to victory.
Should Arsenal go on to claim the title, Raya’s stunning save to deny Matheus Fernandes the chance to put West Ham 1-0 up will go down in Gunners folklore.
The shot had an Expected Goals (xG) rating of 0.54. To put it simply, Fernandes had a better chance of scoring than not. The odds were stacked against the Arsenal goalkeeper.
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Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp debate David Raya’s ‘title-winning save’ against West Ham
And five minutes later, it was Arsenal who took the lead themselves through Leandro Trossard. It could have been so different.
The only blemish on what was a positive day for Arsenal is that it didn’t need to be that close. In an already tense atmosphere, Arsenal stepped on the gas early on and should have gone in front – but Arteta’s plan unravelled as a result of his own doing.
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.
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?
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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…
2026-05-11 10:00:00
