Mikel Arteta must decide his starting XI for Arsenal's trip to the London Stadium to face West Ham, a choice that looks strikingly similar to the one he agonised over before the Atletico Madrid match.
Arsenal have won their past two matches without conceding, and Arteta has already admitted his instinct: "if it's not broke, don't fix it." He revealed he was torn between multiple Arsenal starting XIs against Atletico Madrid before settling on the same team that beat Fulham last weekend, and he could name an unchanged starting XI for the third successive match on Saturday.
That steady run strengthens the case for continuity. Bukayo Saka played around an hour on Tuesday and is expected to start on the right, while Piero Hincapie — Arsenal's April Player of the Month — has started the past two matches on the bench despite his award. Riccardo Calafiori has excelled since returning to the starting XI, and Myles Lewis-Skelly has been excellent in the past two games, giving Arteta several usable combinations.
West Ham will not be a neutral test. Jarrod Bowen is described as West Ham's biggest threat on the right wing and Viktor Gyokeres leads the line, and the home crowd at the London Stadium will be looking to help their team toward Premier League safety. Those factors push toward tactical adjustments even when results have been tidy for Arsenal.
That is where the selection tension sits. The article says Hincapie could come in at left-back for the match, a switch that would reward a player who won the club's April award but has been eased back from the starting XI. Martin Odegaard returned for Arsenal midweek and could come back into the starting XI as the No.10, which would in turn leave Arteta to decide whether Eberechi Eze is moved back out to the left flank in place of Leandro Trossard. Gabriel Martinelli is also pushing to start, and those attacking options must be balanced against the defensive calm that produced the two clean sheets.
Given the compact choices — established performers who have delivered clean sheets versus in-form players waiting for a chance — the simplest course is also the likeliest. Arteta's previous switch before the Atletico match ended with him picking the same team that beat Fulham, and his remark that "if it's not broke, don't fix it" suggests he will lean toward continuity. Still, Hincapie's form, Calafiori's recent excellence, Odegaard's return and the temptation to jolt the wing positions mean the bench at the London Stadium could be the place where the game is won or changed.
