At 24 and with almost 300 appearances for club and country under his belt, Rice has hit the sweet spot of being an experienced player with his best years still ahead of him.
But perhaps only the West Ham fans who had witnessed his year-on-year progression up close could have predicted he would make such a seismic and immediate impact in north London. Six months into his career with Arsenal and Rice is already the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s title-chasing team. There is growing evidence to suggest he is their most important player, albeit with William Saliba and Bukayo Saka providing strong competition.
The only question being asked of the deal was whether Rice had the all-round game to justify such an exorbitant fee. For that money, you’d expect to get a midfielder who can do it all: someone who can make tackles and plug gaps in front of the defence, spray passes – short and long – across the pitch, spring from one box to the other on the counter-attack and regularly contribute goals and assists, especially of the match-winning variety.
Only on that final point were there any doubts, but Rice is quickly dispelling them. He has scored three goals in 15 Premier League appearances for Arsenal so far, and each have carried significant weight.
His first goal in Arsenal’s colours could hardly have been better scripted: a dramatic 96th-minute winner against Manchester United at the Emirates. The second was an opportunistically taken – and technically under-rated – first-time finish from distance against Chelsea to spark an unlikely comeback. And the third, like the first, arrived deep into stoppage time and turned one point into three at Luton.Arsenal’s win at Kenilworth Road took them six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table; Rice’s goals alone have been worth four points. The margin for error is so limited when challenging City that having players able to make decisive contributions when it matters is invaluable. Arsenal finished six points behind the champions last season. Their recent knack for scoring late goals can only help to reduce or even overcome that deficit.
It is not always the offensive players who deliver the clutch moments. Rice has shown a Sergio Ramos-like tendency to snatch victory through sheer force of will; his header on Tuesday night bore a striking resemblance to Ramos’ 93rd-minute equaliser against Atletico Madrid in the 2014 Champions League final.
“He’s making a big impact in the team and those moments are special,” Arteta told Amazon Prime after the Luton win. “He has his quality, this aura about him, to create those moments and that will give him even more confidence.”
Maybe becoming a goalscoring midfielder is the next natural stage in Rice’s evolution. He’s taking more shots now than ever before, averaging 1.3 per game and one every 64.8 minutes in the Premier League, up from his previous best for West Ham in 2022-23 when he averaged a shot per game every 90.9 minutes. With three league goals already in 2023-24, Rice is one off matching his best-ever tally for the Hammers, also from last season.
Only Tottenham’s currently injured talisman James Maddison, can rival Rice as the most influential English midfielder in the Premier League at the moment. Inevitably given his ascendancy, that will lead to comparisons with former heavyweights who previously dominated the division.
On the surface, Rice is very different from Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, English football’s most decorated midfielders of the past two decades. He isn’t known for arriving late in the penalty area to score like Lampard, nor for being an all-action dynamo like Gerrard.
Historically, Rice has been more renowned for his composure and tactical discipline than highlight reel moments in the final third. A record of 13 goals in 213 Premier League games doesn’t suggest that he will end up joining Lampard and Gerrard in the Premier League’s exclusive 100 club.
But neither Lampard nor Gerrard were prolific at the start of their careers. It wasn’t until their eighth seasons in the Premier League that Lampard and Gerrard hit the double-figure mark for goals across a campaign; Lampard managed 10 in 2003-04, and Gerrard reached the same tally in 2005-06.They ended their Premier League careers with 171 and 120 goals respectively. Paul Scholes, who began in an advanced role before retreating, finished on 107.
Whether Rice is granted the freedom to mature into a more attack-minded central midfielder is another matter. After a spell as a marauding No 8, Rice has been repositioned at the base of Arteta’s middle three for each of Arsenal’s last three Premier League games.
With Thomas Partey injured, Rice’s fire-fighting qualities in front of the back four have been required. Temporarily at least, he is the inbetweener sandwiched between the back five and front five.
That may well change next season if, as expected, Arsenal sign a top-class defensive anchor. Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz is believed to be high on their wishlist and a player of that ilk would free Rice up to venture forward even more than he has been doing over the past two campaigns. Perhaps only then will his true goalscoring potential be unlocked.
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