After 10 minutes at the London Stadium, West Ham were two goals behind and taking a battering. Playing possum for the next 20, it would turn out, was a shrewd move.
For having encountered so few signs of life in their feeble opponents, so little resistance to their easy dominance after taking what looked a match-winning lead, Arsenal grew complacent, toying too long with their prey, until the moment on the half-hour mark when Declan Rice robbed a dawdling Thomas Partey on the edge of the visiting box. From nowhere West Ham’s best, most tigerish qualities were reborn.
Seconds later, referee David Coote was pointing to the spot, after Gabriel dived in on Lucas Paqueta. The penalty still had to be put away by Said Benrahma, but the game’s transformative moment had already occurred.
Arsenal have overrun teams in the middle of the park all season, with Oleksandr Zinchenko joining in to make an outnumbering quartet, but Kieran Tierney, playing in the injured Ukrainian’s absence here, is no like-for-like replacement.
Emboldened by Rice’s example, Tomas Soucek and Paqueta joined their captain in going toe-to-toe with the Gunners’ midfield, gradually wresting control away from Martin Odegaard, who had looked a class above in the first third of the game.
In all, Rice made four tackles and four interceptions, the most of any player in both categories, and stood out even more for the fact that his commanding display coincided with Partey’s poorest in months. He also won the ball back 11 times, a vital contribution that prevented Arsenal from building any sustained pressure in their search for a late winner and prevented the need for a desperate defensive rearguard when both home full-backs were on their last legs.
By then, Jarrod Bowen’s controlled volley had put the Hammers level and on course for a 2-2 draw, fair reward for what turned into their best performance of the season, but might just as easily have gone the same way as the recent Newcastle debacle, had it not been for Rice’s early resolve.
“The midfield boys were incredible with the work they put in to stop Arsenal dominating” Hammers manager David Moyes said at full-time. “It’s not easy, because they’re so good.”
Arsenal are favourites to add Rice to their midfield options this summer, when West Ham are resigned to cashing in on their talisman, who has rejected multiple offers of a new deal.
If there was an extra incentive to make an impression, it showed inside 60 seconds, as Rice set about his business with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy footballer on a day when the girls have turned up to watch.
The 24-year-old, though, has already done enough to convince his many eager suitors, with it having been clear all season as the star player in a mediocre team and, in England colours, one of the best in a good one as well.
Arsenal are confident their swift glow-up has fast-tracked them to the front of the queue and even made a half-hearted approach in January, with only faint hope and not an ounce of expectation. Had they succeeded, the most certain aspect of a sliding doors moment is that they would not have been pegged back here.
