Arsenal Player Ratings vs. West Ham: The Biggest VAR Call in Premier League History

Arsenal’s hotly controversial 1–0 win over West Ham on Sunday will have major repercussions on both ends of the Premier League table.

Pablo (center) was penalized for a foul. | Marc Atkins/Getty Images

LONDON—Mikel Arteta changed the game three times with his substitutions, Martin Ødegaard came off the bench to wonderfully create the goal which Leandro Trossard scored to win Sunday’s match, yet Arsenal’s 1–0 win over West Ham United will forever be defined by referee Chris Kavanagh and his video assistant Darren England.

Alan Gunn, the referee for the 1990 FA Cup final, insisted: “We are stage managers, not performers.” Unfortunately for everyone involved—including the figures in black themselves—they assumed center stage at the London Stadium.

Callum Wilson’s stoppage-time equalizer to dent Arsenal’s title challenge and reignite West Ham’s bid for survival was ruled out for what the referees deemed to have been a foul from Pablo on David Raya. It’s not quite clear why VAR focused on the stray arm from the forward on the goalkeeper rather than the myriad of other potential offenses simultaneously committed by both sets of players during the familiar melee at corner kicks in the modern Premier League.

After an interminable few minutes, Kavanagh was directed across to the touchside monitor where he spent another age deliberating the most seismic decision in VAR’s short history. Ultimately, he fell on the side of the Gunners, who escaped with three points to widen the gap above Manchester City, while West Ham were condemned to remain within the relegation zone with just two more shots at salvation left to play for.

---

One Thing We Can’t Ignore

Who knew Ben White would prove to be so important? | Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

One of the defining passages from Sylvia Path’s seminal work, The Bell Jar, paints the analogy of the protagonist’s life to be a fig tree, with each fat purple fruit hanging from an endless array of branches a different future to pluck. Crippled by the number of choices sprawling out in front of her, Esther Greenwood starves to death, watching each fig rot and fall to the ground.

Arteta knows this feeling. The return of so many players from injury is undoubtedly a positive development but also presents the Arsenal manager with a forest of choices. When Ben White crumpled to the turf midway through the first half, Arteta picked the wrong fig.

Declan Rice was shunted to fullback, robbing Arsenal’s midfield of its physicality and capacity to carry the ball which was not replicated by his replacement, Martín Zubimendi. The balance of the game, which had been unmistakably tipped towards the visitors, swung completely the other way.

Statistic (First Half)	Pre-White Injury	Post-White Injury
Expected Goals (xG)	West Ham 0–0.75 Arsenal	West Ham 0.13–0.04 Arsenal
Total Shots	West Ham 0–9 Arsenal	West Ham 3–1 Arsenal
Shots on Target	West Ham 0–2 Arsenal	West Ham 1–0 Arsenal

West Ham hadn’t been able to muster a single shot in anger prior to White’s injury. Yet, they would end the first half in the ascendancy, with many of their most successful moves funnelled down the flank unconvincingly guarded by Rice.

In Plath’s novel, Esther “wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest.” Arteta had the chance to go back to the fig tree at half-time, plucking Cristhian Mosquera off the bench to shore up the right side of defense while Rice returned to midfield.

The Basque boss wasn’t done there, calling upon Ødegaard to deliver the moment of magic dribbling which carved open the space for Trossard’s crisp 83rd-minute winner.

That assist was the 23rd Premier League goal either scored or created by an Arsenal substitute this season, comfortably the most across the division. For comparison, Pep Guardiola’s changes at Manchester City have only forced five goals.

Nuno Espírito Santo would come to rue the intervention of his own substitute, Pablo.

---

Arsenal Player Ratings vs. West Ham (4-2-3-1)

Riccardo Calafiori lined up at left back once more. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

*Ratings provided by FotMob*

GK: David Raya—8.3: Beyond his reflexes, anticipation and immaculate hair, Raya’s best quality is his levels of concentration. Even after large swathes of inactivity he was still alert to West Ham’s efforts.

RB: Ben White—6.4: Forced off injured after an indifferent opening 20 minutes.

CB: William Saliba—7.5: There are no dramatic lunges or crunching sliding tackles, Saliba’s game is instead a wonderful assortment of sly flicks and nudges, coasting through the contest.

CB: Gabriel—7.4: When the game got chaotic at its conclusion, Gabriel seemed to be at his best, thriving amid the flood of limbs.

LB: Riccardo Calafiori—6.4: Makes such a difference to Arsenal’s attack, greasing the wheels of the entire left flank’s buildup play. Very unfortunate to be the player sacrificed at half-time for Arteta’s mistake.

CM: Declan Rice—7.5: Had his every touch predictably booed. More of a surprise to find himself jumping in and then out of the right back position following White’s early injury.

CM: Myles Lewis-Skelly—6.7: “It’s not easy,” Arteta mused in the week, “to look that confident, that energetic, playing with that determination.” Lewis-Skelly embodied all those traits and more.

AM: Eberechi Eze—7.0: Epitomized Arsenal’s frustrations, repeatedly firing the ball into a wall of fleshy claret.

RW: Bukayo Saka—6.5: Really struggled to get into the contest. Taken off to explicit, unflattering comparisons to Jarrod Bowen from the West Ham faithful which his performance couldn’t really rebuff.

ST: Viktor Gyökeres—6.5: Up against defenders he can physically dominate, Gyökeres offers glimpses of competence. There does seem to be a bit more craft to his game lately, sprinkling a few delicate layoffs between his familiar blend of blood and thunder. Actual chances were hard to come by.

LW: Leandro Trossard—8.2: Delivered the decisive moment (outside of Stockley Park) to score his first goal of the calendar year.

SUB: Martín Zubimendi (28’ for White)—6.2: Failed to get a grip on proceedings.

SUB: Cristhian Mosquera (46’ for Calafiori)—6.7: Hardly a bastion of solidity but did better than Rice.

SUB: Martin Ødegaard (67’ for Eze)—7.1: Swung the game with his tip-toe into the West Ham penalty area.

SUB: Kai Havertz (67’ for Zubimendi)—6.2

SUB: Noni Madueke (80’ for Saka)—6.1

Subs not used: Kepa Arrizabalaga (GK), Piero Hincapié, Max Dowman, Gabriel Martinelli.

---

What These Ratings Tell Us

• The mid-game move to fullback knocked Rice off his stride a lot more than the constant boos which greeted his every touch. The natural midfielder has only once before played in that position—and he knew he would be starting there against Brighton in December, so had some preparation for his task. Rice seemed perennially baffled by the presence of wingback El Hadji Malick Diouf and winger Crysencio Summerville running at him in tandem, never sure which one to pick up.
• Saka went 41 days without making a single start for Arsenal between the middle of March and this month’s clash with Fulham. The trip to West Ham was his third appearance in the first XI in the space of one, emotionally draining week—and it showed.
• Raya needed to be at his best (and have the help of the officiating team) as West Ham ramped up the pressure late on.

---

The Numbers That Explain Arsenal’s Dramatic Win

Mikel Arteta named an unchanged starting XI once again. | Shaun Brooks-CameraSport/Getty Images

• Heading into May, Arteta had only named an unchanged XI in one of Arsenal’s first 57 games of the season. Sunday was the third straight match in which the same Gunners lineup was selected. The fluency which that continuation carried into Sunday’s contest was derailed by a first-half injury for White.
• West Ham ended the game with a swollen xG of 1.32 (which doesn’t include Wilson’s disallowed winner) marginally less than Arsenal’s 1.36. On another day, this is very much a 1–1 draw.

Statistic	West Ham	Arsenal
Possession	36%	64%
Expected Goals (xG)	1.32	1.36
Total Shots	9	15
Shots on Target	3	4
Big Chances	2	3
Passing Accuracy	67%	82%
Fouls Committed	3	4
Corners	4	3

---