Arsenal injury news: White and Calafiori concerns after West Ham

Ben White left West Ham with his right knee in a brace after suffering a knee injury midway through the first half, and Riccardo Calafiori was forced off at half-time. Arsenal still won 1-0, but Mikel Arteta’s reshuffle only worked after the team had already been dragged into a defensive reset he did not seem to want.

How Arteta’s reshuffle unfolded

White’s night ended after 28 minutes, when he picked up the injury while challenging with Crysencio Summerville. Arteta did not have much of a choice after that. Declan Rice was moved to right-back, Martín Zubimendi came on, and then Zubimendi was replaced not even 40 minutes later.

Arteta was blunt about the White issue. “We don't know but it doesn't look good at all,” he said. White needs further testing tomorrow before Arsenal know more. That is a proper concern, because the early sight of him leaving the London Stadium with a brace on his right knee was not the kind of detail clubs usually brush aside.

Why the defensive damage matters

Calafiori had already started his third match in a row after spending chunks of the campaign on the sidelines, and he was pulled at half-time. Arteta said, “We had to make another change with Richy.” That forced another adjustment in a game that was already being played with an improvised back line.

The move to put Rice at right-back was a big call, as Gary Neville put it, but Arteta defended it. “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 and threat. Thank God it worked out,” he said. He later added, “We need two players in those pockets that are proper attacking midfielders. We went for it and we got rewarded.”

That is the part of the night Arsenal can live with. Leandro Trossard was their top-rated player in the win with 7.9, Rice still posted a 7.2 despite the emergency role, and Arsenal stayed top on 76 points after 35 matches. The problem is simpler than the tactics board: White and Calafiori are now both injury concerns, and Arteta has one more defensive headache than he did before kickoff.