Although 2025 has felt like the year in which Arsenal continues to lose key players, there are some good news for Mikel Arteta. Old Rice Declan, in which he would spend £ 105 million and feels that he will get a bargain, has returned to life. Nowhere was it so obvious that in Old Trafford, where he saved his side of the shame of not scoring at one end and even more abject humiliation of letting a Manchester United striker scored in the other.
This season began as an attempt of rice. It is not surprising that given the great burden that had been put in its first season after leaving West Ham United. Among his new teammates, only the center of William Saliba and Gabriel had played more minutes in 2023-24, which was then followed for the 690 full minutes in the 2024 Eurocup.
That has changed since the calendars did. The influence of Rice Beyond Set Pieces has been constantly flourishing as well as his team without a striker has needed it. He had hit the champions last month, he had affirmed on a difficult night in Nottingham and the man’s man from Psv Eindhoven that was applied to half of the middle of the middle.
It may not be something natural for him, but at a time when Arsenal needs all the aid of the penalty box they can obtain. Arteta’s vision had always been Rice because a player of such dynamism can threaten the box and at the same time recover the time to close the opposition counter. I could not argue with that evaluation in Old Trafford.
Sunday was rice in the mold of those midfielders of all the action that they know very well in this part of the world, an end of Paul Scholes at one end and addressing as Roy Keane in the other.
His scanning finish showed a true meaning of the number eight where the game could more effectively impact. For 20 minutes, United midfield, two from Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes had been falling towards the six -yard box. Rice seemed to understand that and so when Jurrien Timber threw himself into the penalty area, the England international found a right space pocket inside the penalty area, enough to throw a shot that broke against Andre Onana’s post before curled up on the network.
If Rice had not found a way, it was not easy to see how someone else would have. For an hour and room, Arsenal had been hammering in a united system that began to resemble 11 after Bruno Fernandes free kick, understandably when it facilitated the hosts leaving the counter. Arsenal had all the possession and territory they needed, but rarely made it an overwhelming pressure on Onana. Such is life without any of the four first choice strikers, at least until Gabriel Martinelli returned from an injury to the hamstrings at the time.
Leandro Trosssard’s shape is still reliably unreliable, a magnificent touch to shoot in the first half but little more shocking. Ethan Nwaneri started brilliantly but is 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 apart from trying to cut balls on the two defensive lines of United. Rice almost got into one of them in the first half and seemed a threat to the back post. Until Bukayo Saka returns, there will be more difficult days for Arsenal’s attack if they depend on the rice as his threat of the main objective, but once the progress line is more like in itself, his eight of cash boxes could become a more powerful weapon.
Even so, Rice was not humorous for personal reinforcement in the final beep. He knew how close his side had to tear the little reward they claimed in Old Trafford.
“In the second half we did things that we have not done all season,” Rice told Sky Sports. “We were very naive in the last 10 minutes and we could easily have given the game to Man United. They have that individual threat. It was a bit of stupidity of us.
“Secondly, we were trying to move the balls when the ball was falling. We were losing our runners, trying to play from behind with patterns that we never do, playing perfectly with the Manchester United press. It could have easily gone in their favor.”
Rice did not choose specific instances when Arsenal failed. I didn’t need to do it. When Mikel Merino picked up his pocket in the 84th minute, it seemed for everyone that United would once again find a way to overcome gunners in Old Trafford, regardless of the difficult circumstances in which they found themselves.
Even so, on this occasion, Raya was not called. The danger had already been seen and the first touch of Hojlund opened his body to shoot and opened a road for the rice to paste one of those telescopic legs, whipping the ball to a safe place.
“If I had reacted a second later, Hojlund puts it at the bottom of the network,” he said. “He showed me a bit of the ball and obviously with my legs long that I managed to avoid it. It could have been a penalty and a red potential. It was a 50-50.”
At each extreme, the rice proved to be the Savior of Arsenal. It is not the first time it has been the case, but perhaps the first in a long time. Just when his team needs it more, Rice has returned to the highest level. It is one that few can match.
