London – When the line -up of Arsenal decreased 75 minutes before the start, full of as many changes as you could imagine a team with one eye on the Santiago Bernabeu, it felt important that Declan Rice was not among those who were released the first hour. If someone had earned a break, it was the hero of the hour on Tuesday, but there was more to the presence of Rice in the XI than the chance to get the worship of the Emirates Stadium when the team was read.
When the hamstring of Bukayo Saka took place just before Christmas, with Martin Odegaard struggling to deliver at the extraordinary levels he did in the last two seasons, Arsenal was looking for a driving force. They found that in rice. The question of whether he is a sitting midfielder or a box to dynamo Dynamo will probably never be answered, not when he is good enough to be what his manager wants. What has been clear with their attack is that rice can bear the load in the last third part.
Even more than picking up the load of Saka, Rice has helped to forge an Arsenal team to his image. See how they threatened Brentford in this 1-1 draw that might have been more, but for an instinctive finish of Yoanne Wissa in the second half. A bleak start to this game was enlivened by dangerous crosses from the right to the rear post. Set pieces were a frequent headache for the bees, nothing more than when rice threatened to follow his brace of free kicks against Real Madrid by scoring directly from a corner.
Then there was the opener, the boundless running power of the man they call the horse, illustrated when he wore the ball from the inside of his own third, road fluid, who held possession just long enough for Thomas Partey to overlap and crash in a shot at Mark Flekken’s nearby post. Rice was the counter of one man only a few nights after he had walked more than six miles and came up with a problem in his foot. It was, as Arteta put it, an “incredible action”.
Arsenal rarely comes out in attack, the nature of a team are to which every opponent adapts. However, when Real Madrid has to commit bodies to them on Wednesday evening and if there are green spaces to enter the Bernabeu field, rice is expected to hit the upper gear.
It is something that Arteta wants to see more of “depending on the opposition behavior. I think we have a few options in the first half. When we break the press, when they are simply more oriented by humans and they want to take more risks to open those spaces and sets and holes, that set piece [from which the goal began] Is a clear situation because it is a lot of room to run. “
Only 26, Rice has had the air of a player digging deeper into his talent this season. He continues to build impressive facets. The player who left West Ham probably had that run and passed in his locker, but did he use it with the same frequency? Certainly, his ball striking was only improved in North Londs in two seasons.
Rice has become a real midfield, his touches in the box are rising eight percent since the injury of Saka with similar non-no-significant increases in expected goals, opportunities created and carries progressively. So many of those statistics are the species led by the number 7 of Arsenal when it is fit. Rice has done what he can do to pick up the play.
There is another way in which rice is a reflection of Arsenal. The attacking output was good, not least the assist, but would perhaps have been more? The Gunners ended this game with 14 shots and 0.82 expected goals (XG). It’s not much. It can be often enough, spirit, if you keep your opponent in just three efforts on the other. This season, Arsenal now has seven Premier League matches where they have held the opponent on 0.3 xg or lower, the equivalent of one fairly good chance of score. In the corresponding they have an average of 1.61 XG. Somehow their record is three wins and four draws.
The number three shot down that won a point for Brentford, Wissa Flicking home after a back -post cross by Michael Kayode had paid the hosts. It was also in accordance with the season that Arteta somehow saw his side playing with 10 men, Jorginho Honey off after the bank was emptied. For Arsenal this season, they are the breaks.
However, this will not be a fully wasted campaign if Rice continues with his current process when Saka is fully integrated into this team and when Odegaard returns to the Groove. Fixed the weight that their midfield dynamo is wearing and imagine how far and how quickly it could go.