Though 2025 has rather felt like the year where Arsenal keep losing key players, there is some good news for Mikel Arteta. The old Declan Rice, the one you’d spend £105 million on and feel you’d get a bargain, has come roaring back to life. Nowhere was that more evident than at Old Trafford, where he saved his side from the embarrassment of not scoring at one end and the even more abject humiliation of letting a Manchester United striker score at the other.
This season began as a trying one for Rice. No wonder given the sheer load he had placed on himself in his first season after leaving West Ham United. Among his new teammates, only center backs William Saliba and Gabriel had played more minutes in 2023-24, which was then followed by the full 690 minutes at Euro 2024. They might call him The Horse at London Colney but there were valid fears he had been flogged to the point of breakdown in the early months of this season.
That has changed since the calendars did. Rice’s influence beyond set pieces has been steadily burgeoning just as his forwardless team have most needed him. He had run roughshod over the champions last month, had asserted himself on a tough night in Nottingham and blown PSV Eindhoven’s man-to-man system to smithereens in midweek.
It might not come naturally to him but at a time when Arsenal need all the penalty box help they can get. Arteta’s vision had always been to get that out of Rice because a player of such dynamism can threaten the box while still getting back in time to shut down the opposition counter. You couldn’t argue with that assessment at Old Trafford.
Sunday was Rice in the mold of those all-action midfielders they know all too well in this part of the world, a finish worth of Paul Scholes at one end and tackling like Roy Keane at the other.
His swept finish showed a true number eight’s sense of where he could most effectively impact the game. For 20 minutes United’s midfield two of Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes had been dropping toward the six-yard box. Rice seemed to understand that and so when Jurrien Timber darted into the penalty area, the England international found himself a pocket of space just inside the penalty area, enough to whip a shot that cracked against Andre Onana’s post before nestling in the net.
If Rice hadn’t found a way, it wasn’t easy to see how anyone else would have. For an hour and a quarter Arsenal had been hammering away at a United system that began to resemble a back 11 after Bruno Fernandes’ free kick — understandably so when it facilitated the hosts springing out on the counter. Arsenal had all the possession and territory they needed but rarely turned it into overwhelming pressure on Onana. Such is life without any of the four first-choice forwards, at least until Gabriel Martinelli returned from a hamstring injury on the hour.
Leandro Trossard’s form continues to be reliably unreliable, a gorgeous touch to tee himself up for one shot in the first half but little else impactful. Ethan Nwaneri started brightly but he’s 18 years old. Mikel Merino is not a striker. With Martin Odegaard invariably facing a double or triple team, there was not much that could be done other than attempting to clip balls over United’s two defensive lines. Rice nearly got on one of them in the first half and looked a threat to the back post. Until Bukayo Saka returns, there will be more tough days for the Arsenal attack if they are reliant on Rice as their primary goal threat but once the forward line is more like itself, their box-crashing eight could become a more powerful weapon.
Still, Rice was in no mood for personal boosterism at the final whistle. He knew how close his side had come to frittering away what little reward they claimed at Old Trafford.
“In the second half we did things that we’ve not done all season,” Rice told Sky Sports. “We were very naive in the last 10 minutes and could easily have handed the game to Man United. They’ve got that individual threat. It was a bit of stupidity from us.
“Second balls, we were trying to flick balls when the ball was dropping. We were losing our runners, trying to play out from the back with patterns that we never do, playing into Manchester United’s press perfectly. It could easily have gone in their favor.”
Rice did not pick out specific instances when Arsenal failed. He didn’t need to. When Mikel Merino had his pocket picked in the 84th minute, it seemed for all the world that United would once more find a way to beat the Gunners at Old Trafford no matter the trying circumstances they found themselves in. Rasmus Hojlund was through on goal, opening his body up to roll the ball past David Raya, who had made and would go on to make saves that were no less crucial than Rice’s late intervention.
Still, on this occasion, Raya was not called on. The danger had already been spotted and Hojlund’s first touch both opened his body up to shoot and opened up an avenue for Rice to stick one of those telescopic legs out, whipping the ball to safety.
“If I would have reacted a second later Hojlund puts that in the back of the net,” he said. “He showed me a bit of the ball and obviously with the long legs I managed to get around it. It could have been a penalty and potential red. It was a 50-50.”
At each end, Rice proved to be Arsenal’s savior. It is hardly the first time that has been the case but perhaps the first in a while. Just when his side most need him, Rice has returned to the highest level. It is one that few others can match.
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