Mikel Arteta has brushed off any suggestion that Arsenal are overworking Declan Rice, and in the same breath explained why he keeps asking the midfielder to do more.
The question came up at Friday’s press conference before Hull City visit the Emirates on Saturday. Rice played the full match in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Slavia Prague, and he looked shattered in the second half, even as Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori dropped out of the starting XI.
He has started all nine of Arsenal’s Premier League games and played the full 90 minutes in four of the last five. That comes after 69 matches for club and country last season, and he now joins up with England after missing the last camp for load management.
What did Arteta say about Declan Rice’s workload?
Arteta did not accept the premise at all. He pointed to the Carabao Cup, where Rice was left out of the squad for both of Arsenal’s games.
He said: “Concerns? The only player, the only player in this squad that for two games in the Carabao Cup has been left out of the squad. At home with two days off. That’s my concern.”
He went on: “It’s not true. We are really looking after him more than any other season. The way he’s training and all the load. That’s it. Here are the demands of this football club and you have a player like him. Not only him because there are many others that have even less time.”
Then came the line that will end up on a few dressing room walls: “That has to be the mindset. If you start to put other things in your brain, damage. Erase them, get them in the bin and just focus on what you have to do.”
A new role, and five assists already
The bigger story is how much Rice’s game has changed. He has five Premier League assists already, the most of any player in the league and the same number he managed in the whole of last season. Against Bayern Munich he scored his first goal since March.
Arteta put that down to mentality first. “The mentality to go out and win football matches and to add another level to his game, another kind of threat and be much more unpredictable, and we’ve been working a lot on that,” he said. “He’s desperate to improve every part of his game, and we need to do that while we maintain so many incredible things that he’s already done, but he’s on the right trajectory.”
The other change is where he picks the ball up. Rice has been dropping deep to help Arsenal build, and Arteta said there was no point keeping him in one lane.
“Because I think we cannot restrict his qualities and his capacities. He can drop back, he can progress play. He can drop back, he can carry the ball. He can be incredible in transition. He can win duels,” he explained. “He can produce passes by arriving, by playing far, by crossing the ball left or right. It doesn’t matter. On set pieces. So, he’s got a lot to offer. His shooting ability from long range as well is something that we need to use more.”
Is a new contract part of the plan?
Asked whether he and Rice had talked about how his game might look in two or three years, with a new contract to come, Arteta kept it short term. “We haven’t been that far yet. Obviously, we have still a lot to do,” he said, adding that Rice’s impact on the team “has to be short-term” for now. We looked at where things stand on that deal when Arteta called it ‘a matter of time’.
Why Hull City is the last stretch before a rest
Rice’s minutes are part of a wider squeeze. Of the 15 matches Arsenal have played this season, only five have been at home, and in the past week they have been to Fleetwood, Liverpool and Prague. Hull City, by contrast, have had a full week to prepare.
Arteta was in no mood to complain. “It’s all a pleasure. I heard them tell me: ‘you guys fly with private jets and good buses and good food’. It’s beautiful,” he said. “Because normally you don’t play four away games in a row or three away games in a row. And you don’t play Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, very strange. We have done it a few times and we have to do it tomorrow again. We are buzzing.”
After Hull, Rice heads to England as one of five Arsenal players in Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the Nations League games against Croatia and Spain. He was also one of the Gunners up for the Premier League’s October awards.
Verdict: Arteta is right about Declan Rice, for now
On the evidence, Arteta has a point. Resting Rice for both Carabao Cup ties was a deliberate choice, and a player who is adding assists, carries and long shots to his game is not one who looks worn down.
The worry is the next two weeks. England have a big say over how many minutes he plays during the break, and Arsenal return to Newcastle away before a December packed with big games. If Rice comes back from international duty with a full 180 minutes in his legs, the workload question will be asked again, and Arteta may not be able to bin it quite so easily.
