Danny Murphy hails Arteta’s bold changes after Arsenal beat West Ham

Danny Murphy said Mikel Arteta deserved credit for refusing to leave a tight game alone, and Arsenal’s 1-0 win over West Ham showed why. At the London Stadium on Sunday, 10 May 2026, Arteta kept turning to his bench, made three separate substitute decisions and, Murphy argued, only the final one really paid off as Arsenal took a decisive step in the Premier League title race.

The scoreline mattered as much as the method. Official Premier League reporting said the victory moved Arsenal five points clear of Manchester City, who still had a game in hand, and left Arteta’s side with Burnley at home and Crystal Palace away to finish the season. City’s FA Cup final also meant one of their league fixtures had been moved, adding another layer of pressure to the run-in. In that context, Arsenal needed more than control. Arsenal needed a manager willing to change the game in front of him.

That was the point Murphy made when he singled out Arteta’s boldness. Repeated in-game changes are easy to question when a match is still on a knife-edge, particularly away from home against an opponent capable of turning Arsenal’s title chase into a crisis. On this occasion, Arteta’s willingness to keep adjusting, rather than settling for caution, helped Arsenal find the breakthrough and then see the game out.

Arteta framed the result as part of a broader repair job. He said the last two games had been “very special” because Arsenal had put right past scars, including losing two home matches to West Ham in the previous two seasons. That history has loomed over Arsenal’s title runs before. West Ham beat Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates on 22 February 2025, ending Arsenal’s 15-match unbeaten run and leaving them eight points behind Liverpool. Premier League analysis at the time described that defeat as another familiar blow to Arsenal’s hopes.

The longer view only sharpened the significance of this response. Premier League analysis has noted that only once before had a team overturned a 13-point deficit to win the title, and that team was Arsenal in 1997/98. It has also highlighted the scale of Arteta’s rebuild, from 15th place in December 2020 to sustained title contention. This win did not settle the race, but it tested whether Arteta’s changes were a one-off tactical hit or evidence that his instincts have evolved at the moment Arsenal need them most.