lorddulaarsenal really is. A mate of mine was at the game today and came out raving about him. Hopefully he puts a performance like that in next week, we'll need him to.

    When he drives through with the ball it's like when you watch a game between youngsters and there's that one kid that is a lot physically bigger/stronger than the rest and when he gets on the ball the others can't really get near him.

    • est likes this.

    this guy is casually dropping 8-9/10 performances each week

    a by-product partey being out is that rices development has accelerated by dint of the extra responsibility he's had to carry, and boy has he carried it well. looks completely at home as the heartbeat of our midfield

    Feels like after most matches we come here and rave about him, not many mega money transfers turn out as planned but this guy is worth every penny so far. Really reminds me of when Liverpool dropped big money on Van Dijk and Allison, they elevated the team. Rice has done that for us so far.

      DiabyKungFu Good goal but we really need to see him score a Champions League knockout round hat-trick before we seriously start comparing him to Nicklas Bendtner. Folks are getting ridiculously ahead of themselves there.

      Well then. The stars have aligned perfectly. If Deccers doesn't get a hat-trick at the Emirates against Porto in the CL Round of 16, then we'll know for a fact that he's a fraud. Time for him to prove himself.

          Bendtner scored at the Camp Nou too against peak Barcelona. A hattrick here will only prove so much.

          JazzG Feels like after most matches we come here and rave about him

          I was going to make a post after the game yesterday but stopped short as I’d just be repeating myself.

          I think we’ve seen last couple of games that playing as a 6 doesn’t prevent him from making those driving runs.

            RocktheCasbah Haven't been on in and a while and I've got about two weeks of posts I'm working through but this one made me laugh as it reminded me of Wenger being described as "a glorified Director of Football".

            And Declan Rice. What a guy. He gives off proper excitable puppy vibes.

                And I'm pretty sure my view in the summer was that Rice was a good player but surely we could have found someone else for the ridiculous money that was being touted at the time. Happy to say I'm an idiot.

                  Tam

                  To be fair you got a lot of 'there's probably someone in Europe for 1/3 of that fee'.

                    Tam same. He's ridiculously consistent.

                      Really grown into this role, you can see his passing range has improved and more confident in making more difficult passes.

                      Tam I mean, to be fair, I don't think I - or many others here - were immediately sold on the idea. But the more I thought about it, I thought Mikel has a clear idea of how he wants to play and if he thought Declan was the man for the job, then he was probably right.

                      Apologies for the journey through past and present tenses there...

                      I also thought it wasn't unreasonable to expect someone of his age to improve his game with better players around him than he had at West Ham. Especially being coached by a man who excelled in the same role for us.

                        Can see he is really growing into his role and already a leader for us.

                        What makes him stand out even more is that winning leader mentality as a really likeable character and not being an intense miserable sod like a Roy Keane, this is more likely to get a positive reaction from his team mates rather than being in fear of him. I've played with players like him who you just enjoy playing alongside rather than fearing putting a foot wrong, brings the better side of you out.

                        Never liked him at West Ham 😆 too outspoken and moany for me. Now I think he's the best thing ever 😂

                          Panda he was very all action at West Ham but its impressive how he's adapted so quickly to a more structured sort of football. Has any other midfielder take to Arteta-ball so quickly? Xhaka took years, Ode took at least half a season, Havertz is still adapting, Partey was injured a lot at the start so hard to tell.