With a commanding display at Liverpool, Declan Rice shows he is Arsenal’s man for all seasons, and reasons
Did you see Declan Rice? Or rather how did you not see Declan Rice? At Anfield, the loudest and meanest arena in Europe, against a rageful Liverpool, there were large swathes of the game when it seemed that there was more than one Declan Rice on the pitch.
He was there disrupting a pass; he was here bursting forth to create some space in the midfield; he was there mopping up for the faltering centre-back, heading a ball away to safety; he was there too, in the final third slipping in a pass into the box. Was it visual trickery of the retina-dazing fluorescence of Arsenal’s away shirt, or was it for real? For, how can a footballer perform so many roles! Were you sure he was not an AI-spawned robot footballer?
But that’s how Rice has been for Arsenal this season, immense and impactful. A ...