Mikel Arteta has explained that he felt he had no choice but to substitute Martin Zubimendi against West Ham United, despite having brought the same player on earlier in the game.
Following Ben White’s injury in the first half of Arsenal’s match against West Ham United on Sunday, it was somewhat surprising to see Martin Zubimendi coming on for the right-back.
At first, some fans assumed Riccardo Calafiori might be going to right-back, with Myles Lewis-Skelly returning to left-back. Instead, Declan Rice dropped into the back four.
It was a change that seemed to cause Arsenal some problems, and Mikel Arteta ultimately made further substitutions to effectively undo the alteration.
First, he brought on Cristhian Mosquera for Calafiori at half-time, moving Lewis-Skelly to left-back and Rice back into midfield. Then, he substituted Zubimendi for Kai Havertz in the 67th minute.
It’s never easy to be a substituted substitute, and Arteta admitted as much after the game. But he explained that he felt it was as a necessary change in that moment, as well as explaining why he didn’t just play Mosquera in the first place.
“With the game that I expected, bringing Mosquera (on) was going to lock something that we really believed that [Rice] can give us, the fluidity and the chance to hurt them, but sometimes you have to make another change,” Arteta said.
“The one on Zubi was tough, but I really felt that we had to put two attacking midfielders in that moment to generate all the kind of issues I’ve said, and thank god it worked out.”
Though Mosquera is a very good defender, it’s true that he doesn’t offer as much going forward as Arsenal’s other right-backs. So it’s understandable that Arteta was hesitant to bring the centre-back on, with Arsenal still needing a goal and having more than an hour to play.
With Calafiori suffering an injury and being unable to play the second half, the manager’s hand was forced, and he finally introduced Mosquera.
But with the scores still level 20 minutes later, the manager needed to go for it, and the best way to do that was to bring on more obvious attacking players like Martin Odegaard and Havertz.
Those were the changes that ultimately won Arsenal the match, but Zubimendi was the unfortunate sacrifice to make it happen. It was nothing personal, the Spaniard just had to make way for the good of the team this time.
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