Like most former Arsenal players, Emmanuel Petit is desperate for the Gunners to get over the line and win the Premier League.
Petit won the title and FA Cup with the Gunners back in 1998 as his formidable partnership with Patrick Vieira in midfield succeeded at both club and international level.
Now, working as a pundit for Stadium Astro, Petit has looked at the current Arsenal team and admitted two players are catching his eye.
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Emmanuel Petit has praise for Arsenal duo Declan Rice and Viktor Gyokeres
It’s always interesting to hear the views of former Arsenal stars on this current squad.
Indeed, when asked on Stadium Astro who has been catching his eye during the last few months, Petit pointed to both Declan Rice and Viktor Gyokeres.
“I really like, as always, Declan Rice. I really like as well, the reaction of Gyokeres and now he has to score against top teams the same way Arsenal have to win against top teams, they are linked,” Petit said.
“But yeah I would say Declan Rice. He has been a leader ever since he signed for Arsenal and he impresses me.”
However, when it was suggested that Rice could win the Ballon D’or, Petit simply gestured to ‘calm down’ with such talk.
Nevertheless, if Arsenal do win the title and manage to snag the Champions League as well, Rice has to be in the conversation. Furthermore, a good World Cup with England would only strengthen his case.
Declan Rice and Viktor Gyokeres have different arcs but are of equal importance
If we compare the seasons of Rice and Gyokeres to the character arc of a TV character, we can easily see they have taken completely different paths.
On one hand, you have the consistency and robotic nature of Rice’s performances. He is rarely below a 7/10 and has become the first name on the team-sheet in many ways now. If his season was a line on a graph, it would maintain a steady trajectory.
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On the flip side, Viktor Gyokeres is on the verge of going from zero to hero. After a decent enough start, Gyokeres only had five goals by Christmas and looked a waste of money at times.
However, nobody has scored more goals in England in 2026 than Gyokeres and he is now just as essential as Rice – albeit in a different way – to Arsenal’s title hopes.
Both players here have impressed in their own way and it’s no surprise Petit is impressed.
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