Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes that one Arsenal star has proven plenty of his critics wrong this season.
Declan Rice has taken his game to a new level since his arrival at Arsenal in the recent summer transfer window.
Arsenal paid a club-record £105 million fee to prise the 25-year-old away from West Ham United. Many Arsenal fans are already convinced that Rice has lived up to his enormous price tag. He has rapidly established himself as a key figure at the Emirates Stadium, and is hugely important to Mikel Arteta.
Against Sheffield United on Monday evening, the midfielder was deployed in a more advanced role than he often has been throughout his career, playing alongside Martin Odegaard, and just behind Kai Havertz, who was spearheading the attack. Rice has spoken before about how Arteta has encouraged him to offer more of a presence in the final third, and this was more evidence of that plan being put into action.
The decision to play Rice further up the pitch paid off handsomely for the Gunners. The England international was able to grab a first-half goal at Bramall Lane, and impressed with his sharp movement and link-up play throughout the match. Rice is now one of five Arsenal players to have provided at least ten Premier League goal contributions already this season.
Goalscoring was not what Rice was known for in his West Ham days. He is an elite-level holding midfielder, well-regarded for his ability to break up opposition attacks and protect the defensive line behind him. He is now showing that he has far more facets to his game than that, though.
Jamie Carragher hails Declan Rice development
Jamie Carragher is certainly pleased to see Rice shining in the final third. Speaking on Sky Sports after the Gunners’ mauling of Sheffield United, the pundit said, “I’m delighted Declan Rice is getting goals, because I’ve always been a big admirer of Declan Rice. It’s easy to say that, you can be an admirer of him, because he’s a top player. There’s no doubt about that. But there used to be criticism of him, in that ‘he can’t be a great midfield player, because he doesn’t score enough goals.’”
“Now, my argument was…if he’s playing a sitting midfield role, as we saw in…Emmanuel Petit, great midfield player, [Patrick] Vieira, great midfield player – they would get five goals a season, and we would never question it because they’re a midfield player. So, you can’t have a go at Declan Rice for not scoring enough goals.”
Rice has shown this season that the can have an impact at both ends of the pitch, which makes him incredibly useful to Arteta, who can now tailor his use of Rice to the nature of the opponents that Arsenal find themselves up against.
It is now vital that Rice is able to remain fit and in-form for the rest of the season. Even accounting for the quality of Jorginho and the recent return to fitness of Thomas Partey, it would be a crushing blow to lose Rice for any significant length of time.
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