diff --git a/newsfragments/4217.bugfix.rst b/newsfragments/4217.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7b9146dd50f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/4217.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fix argument order of ``--config-settings["--build-option"]`` arguments.
+This was broken by <https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/pull/4079>`.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setuptools/build_meta.py b/setuptools/build_meta.py
index 0a0abfdae0d..83196aed4b6 100644
--- a/setuptools/build_meta.py
+++ b/setuptools/build_meta.py
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ def prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel(
         return self._bubble_up_info_directory(metadata_directory, ".dist-info")
 
     def _build_with_temp_dir(
-        self, setup_command, result_extension, result_directory, config_settings
+        self, setup_command, result_extension, result_directory, config_settings, arbitrary_args=False
     ):
         result_directory = os.path.abspath(result_directory)
 
@@ -385,6 +385,8 @@ def _build_with_temp_dir(
                 "--dist-dir",
                 tmp_dist_dir,
             ]
+            if arbitrary_args:
+                sys.argv += self._arbitrary_args(config_settings)
             with no_install_setup_requires():
                 self.run_setup()
 
@@ -402,10 +404,11 @@ def build_wheel(
     ):
         with suppress_known_deprecation():
             return self._build_with_temp_dir(
-                ['bdist_wheel', *self._arbitrary_args(config_settings)],
+                ['bdist_wheel'],
                 '.whl',
                 wheel_directory,
                 config_settings,
+                True,
             )
 
     def build_sdist(self, sdist_directory, config_settings=None):
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_build_meta.py b/setuptools/tests/test_build_meta.py
index b912194805f..3d957e751ac 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/test_build_meta.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_build_meta.py
@@ -720,7 +720,13 @@ def test_editable_without_config_settings(self, tmpdir_cwd):
         build_backend.build_editable("temp")
         assert not Path("build").exists()
 
-    @pytest.mark.parametrize("config_settings", [{"editable-mode": "strict"}])
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "config_settings",
+        [
+            {"--build-option": ["build_ext", "--inplace"]},
+            {"editable-mode": "strict"},
+        ],
+    )
     def test_editable_with_config_settings(self, tmpdir_cwd, config_settings):
         path.build({**self._simple_pyproject_example, '_meta': {}})
         assert not Path("build").exists()