Paul Merson believes Declan Rice has had the same level of impact on Arsenal’s midfield as Patrick Vieira did back in the early 2000s.
Rice has been one of the best players in Europe this season and has somehow failed to win any of the Premier League Player of the Season awards.
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Even after the first Premier League title, Rice can already be considered one of Arsenal’s greatest-ever midfield players, following the impact he’s had on the club winning their first league title in 22 years.
Now, Merson has been asked to pick the better player between Rice and Vieira following the Gunners’ first title win since the Invincibles.
Paul Merson picks Patrick Vieira over Declan Rice
Paul Merson has picked Patrick Vieira ahead of Declan Rice when comparing the current Arsenal team to the 2004 Invincibles team.
The former Gunners attacker believes that Rice has been ‘brilliant’ and has had a similar impact to the Frenchman, but Vieira remains ahead of him for now.
Merson told The Good, The Bad & The Football: “Rice has been brilliant. He’s been massive. I think he’s been outstanding, but I’ve got to go with Patrick Vieira.
“That’s a tight one because I think Declan’s had as much of an influence on the Arsenal team as Patrick Vieira did.”
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Merson did pick David Raya, Gabriel Magalhaes and Bukayo Saka as the three current Arsenal stars who would make it into the Invincibles team.
Speaking about Gabriel or Kolo Toure, Merson added: “Yeah, I’ll go with Gabriel because he had more of an influence on the team than Toure did.”
Then, when asked between William Saliba and Sol Campbell: “I think I think Saliba needs Gabriel more than Gabriel needs Saliba.”
Lauren, Campbell, Ashley Cole, Robert Pires, Gilberto Silva, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp all joined Vieira in Merson’s combined team.
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