WATCH:Rice is 'future Arsenal captain' and first on team-sheet, but legend unsure about Odegaard

“The last couple of games he was not the same player on the pitch. That has an impact on Arsenal’s competitiveness.”

Arsenal next face Sheffield United at the Emirates on Saturday as they return to Premier League action.

talkSPORT football match centre

Keep up-to-date with all the latest Arsenal fixtures and results and live Premier League standings in our new match centre.Since signing from West Ham this summer for a deal worth £105million, Rice has quickly established himself as one of the Gunners key players, scoring twice and providing one assist in 13 games.

That assist came against Sevilla in the Champions League this week, with the midfielder feeding the ball to Gabriel Jesus, who went on to net a stunning, curled effort to secure the win.

Former Arsenal midfielder and Premier League and FA Cup winner Emmanuel Petit joined talkSPORT Breakfast the morning after the victory to sing Rice’s praises.

But it turns out he’s so impressed with the England international that he believes he can captain Arsenal, just like he did last season for West Ham.

“I’m a big fan, a huge, huge fan of Declan Rice,” he said. “I think since he stepped up into the team, he gave the impression that he’s been there for ages.

“He’s been like a leader and rolled into the team and off the pitch he’s so important. For me, he can be the next captain of the Gunners with [Bukayo] Saka because he’s from the academy.

“Declan Rice has so much quality as a person but as a player as well. For me he’s no.1 into the team [sheet].”

Current Arsenal captain Odegaard also played in Spain on Tuesday night. The Norwegian netted a Champions League goal earlier in the season in the opening game against PSV, netting four in all competitions this season.

Petit has noticed Odegaard isn’t his usual self

Petit has noticed Odegaard isn’t his usual self

He’s put it down to fixture congestion

He’s put it down to fixture congestion

But despite joint-second highest scorer this campaign for Arsenal alongside Saka, Jesus and Leandro Trossard, Petit thinks Odegaard looks off the pace compared to previous seasons.

He continued: “Odegaard recently looks sloppy on the pitch with no creativity and he looks tired as well physically.

“Probably the fact that we’re playing top, top games every three days has an impact and the fact there’s not a big rotation in the first XI with [Mikel] Arteta that could be a problem as well.

“I remember when it gets to that stage of the season especially the last few weeks of the season when important players get injured. Odegaard, when he plays well, most of the time Arsenal win the game.