Arsenal and Declan the clear winners in Rice deal as West Ham the only party not to improve

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I remember when the transfer finally went through, West Ham fans responded with utter bitterness.

“Not worth that”
“We have had their pants down”
“£20m too much, thanks for the help Pep”

A little more than 3 months on and I think it is quite clear that Arsenal got themselves a brilliant player, for a good price, and it was a great move for Declan Rice.

With Rice in the team, Arsenal have improved dramatically.

Rice has also improved in his time at Arsenal. You will find very few now debating against him being World Class. West Ham, meanwhile, have gone backwards.

Arsenal improvement

A lot has been made this season about how Manchester City had a drop off when Rodri was out suspended. Arsenal were the same in previous seasons when Thomas Partey was out.

Partey has started just two Premier League games this season and Arsenal have not missed him. The reason is Declan Rice.

The Ghanian was one of the best midfielders in the Premier League last season. Declan Rice is the best midfielder in the Premier League this season.

Partey’s issue has always been his fitness, his ability to play 40+ games a season. Rice is more durable and has more to his game.

When we beat Manchester City in the league, Rice played a dominant role in central midfield. He has quickly become a moder-day Ruud Gullit.

In defence, Rice and Partey are not too disimilar, but it is when our backs are against the wall Rice rises to another level.

Probably due to his conditioning from a young age playing for someone like West Ham, Rice finds another gear when the team are looking to defend a lead and need someone to drive the ball forward. He reminds me of Roy Keane the way he takes responsibility of a game.

Rice can dominate and dictate a game in its closing 30-minutes that PArtey was unable to do so.

His positioning is excellent and he knows when to clear upfield, when to play a short pass and when to drive into space. Partey did not always have their clarity in the closing minutes.

Sevilla was the perfect example of this as we held on to a 2-1 win. I am not sure we do that with Partey.

This is not to say Thomas Partey is a poor footballer, just the Rice is now a level above. And much of this is due to the Englishman’s self-improvement since joining The Arsenal.

Rice improvement

I do not know why it is so controversial to have the opinion that Declan Rice has improved since joining Arsenal.

Yes, it has only been 2 and a half months, but that highlights just how quickly Rice has picked up the way we play and his hunger to learn.

Rice was very good at West Ham. One of the best midfielders in the league. But now? I would argue he is the best in the league. And Ithink only bitter Hammers would disagree (despite last year them claiming he was the best!).

Playing with better players has taken Rice to the next level. He no longer needs to be Superman on the pitch. He is surrounded by World Class talents such as Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, comapred to average journeymen like Jarrad Bowen and Lucas Paqueta.

Rice looks calmer at Arsenal than at West Ham due to his understanding that he does not need to be bother the defensive and attacking match winner. He is learning that he does not need to drive forward with the ball everytime he gets it. He looks calmer and due to that his decision making is much improved.

The only area where Rice has not improved this season is in “ball recoveries” – basically tackles and interceptions. But this is due to him playing for a vastly different team that does not require him putting in 10-15 challeges a game.

Rice is losing posession less, passing more, and completing more passes. He has become so consistent. So reliable.

West Ham go backwrds

Against Everton on Sunday, West Ham were bullied in midfield.

The Hammers started the season well, and the recruitment of James Ward-Prowse and Edson Álvarez looked good business.

Alongside Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta, the quartet looked to be a solid midfield and some made the argument that West Ham’s midfield was stronger than last year. But it is a mid-table midfield and so it is no surprise that they are now mid-table.

Rice took their midfield to another level, capable of World Class performances. A one man midfield. Without him, West Ham’s midfield now looks fairly average.

West Ham fans tried to pull the wool over everyones eyes by saying stuff like “Rice was holding back Tomas Soucek. The Czech midfielder was always better and is now back to his best”. Three defeats in the row have led those same fans to now demand he is dropped. Rice was undroppable.

With just one win in their last 6 games, I think it is clear and obvious that West Ham are missing Declan Rice.

Tonight, I expect Declan Rice to not play. Only Ben White and William Saliba have played more minutes than him for The Arsenal this season.

Saturday’s game against Newcastle is vastly more important than the League Cup v West Ham. Rice will be given a rest ahead of the bigger game.

The likes of the League Cup or European Conference League are designed for those smaller clubs to dream of a little bit of minor success. They are good additions to the calendar. But for bigger sides they can be an inconvenience.

Arteta will shuffle his pack tonight, Rice will be left out, and the main target of this week is to awake Sunday morning top of the league.

UTA.

Keenos

Beware of Riyadh Season

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Long term readers of the blog will know I have often spoken out against sporting events being “sold” to backwards countries in their attempt to divert the attention from those nations horrendous human rights track records.

We have seen F1, athletics, football, boxing and more go to these places, with all those athletes involved suddenly forgetting about what they have said about slavery, taking the knee, rainabow laces, etc. Sports washing.

On Saturday, we had the farce that was the Battle of Baddest take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

We had Tyson Fury talking about how welcoming the murderous Saudi regime were to him, in comparison to the UK Government. The self proclaimed Gypsy King trying to criticise our authorities for not providing him with “special treatment” when going through airports.

The so-called “man of the people” celebrating he is invited for a cup of tea with heads of Government in Saudi Arabia whilst complaining that he has not even had a thank you letter from anyone in the UK Goverment. He has rightly been slammed by many.

The fight was just farcical.

Bought by the Saudi’s as part of their Riyadh season, they then splashed out millions to ensure that former champions and celebraties were ring side for their event.

I never want to hear any of those who took Saudi money to turn up ever talk about human rights, racism, homophobia or anything again. They have all shown their morals can be bought. Just like Jordan Henderson.

The fight was launching the Saudi’s Riyadh Season. A 6 month “state-sponsored annual entertainment and sports festival”. Basically, the worlds biggest sportswashing initiative.

Interested in what Riyadh Season involved beyong boxing, I checked out its Wikipedia page.

The usual suspects were there – boxing, UFC, wrestling, tennis. But there was also football…

The Turkish Super Cup (their version of the Community Shield) is set to be held in Saudi Arabia.

The match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce will be the 2nd time in 3 years that the Turksih FA have taken the Arab oil money and hosted the game abroad.

Back in 2021, the Turkish Super Cup was sold to Qatar. Just 3,500 turned up for it. In comparison, a year later nearly 47,000 were at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The Turkish FA are literally taking a game away from the fans for (probably) plenty of brown envelopes.

And it is not just Turkey who have sold games to Saudi Arabia for Riyadh Season.

La Liga are also in on the act, selling the 2023–24 Supercopa de Espana to the Saudis. This will be the 4th time in 5 years that the Supercopa has taken place in Riyadh

Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid and Barcelona v Osasuna will both take place in Riyadh in January. The winners will then face eachother in the final on 14 January.

La Liga had actually expanded the tournament from the traditional 2-team League Champions v Domestic Cup Winners to a 4-team tournament to enable them to sell it abroad.

Italy have also followed suit, with the expanded 2023 Supercoppa Italiana set to be part of Riyadh Season.

A week after the Supercopa de Espana finishes, Napoli will face Fiorentina and Inter Milan will play against Lazio. The final will take place on 25 January.

Manchester City are also set to play a Saudi All Stars XI in the Riyadh Season Cup. This will probably take place during the mid-season winter “break”.

I look forward to hearing Pep Guardiola complain again about how many games his players have to play, whilst the club arranged meaningless friendlies in what should be a rest period.

How long will it be until the FA get in on the act. Follow Spain and Italy and expand the Community Shield to a 4-team tournament and take it from Wembley to whichever Arab nations pays them the most.

If they do it, it will show all the Black Lives Matters posters, the taking the knee, the rainbow laces, etc are just virtue signalling. That the FA do not really care about any of these things and their morals can be bought.

Likewise, it will show that all the guff around the European Super League was just because they feared losing “their game”, and was not in protection of match-going fans.

Some of you reading the blog and thinking of commenting “Arsenal are a global club. We deserve games in our country”. Save you energy. I do not care for your opinion.

Arsenal existed before being a global brand, and will still exist after. Football thrives in places like Norway, Denmark, Poland and others where there is a not a huge export of TV rights. Local fans supporting local teams. That is where the passion is.

I have a fear that it will not be the European Super League that breaks up football, but a Liv Golf style “Saudi League”, which would see top European clubs leave their domestic leagues and join an international Super League funded by the Saudis.

An NFL style franchise league where teams play some games in England, Spain or Italy, and then others in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

If Arsenal ever joined something like, football will be dead for me. I also think the authorities would be overestimating how much interest there is in football in these countries and how quickly having Madrid, Barcelona or Munich in town every other week will wear off.

Turkey, Italy and Spain have already taken games away from their local fans to fill the pockets of officials. England might not be far from joining them…

Keenos

Arsenal cruise to victory as Arteta gives stars a rest

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“Odegaard has been dropped” was what one of my pals said when the team news came out.

I then proceeded to make it very clear that the Arsenal captain had not been dropped, he had been rested, and Mikel Arteta had rotated his team.

Last season we suffered a little due to fatigue in the run-in. Arteta had played the same small group of players in every possibile game. He rarely rested or rotated his stars.

With the acquisition of Kai Havertz and Declan Rice this summer, and Jorginho and Leandro Trossard last January, the manager has options to rest players.

Sheffield United at home is a game you have pencilled in for resting a couple of key players. Back in the 90s, Fergie would have made 7 or 8 changes and his side would have come away with a win. Pep Guardiola also would have used an easy home game to give Erling Haaland or Kevin de Bruyne (if fit) a break.

So why then was the narrative that Arteta had dropped Martin Odegaard, rather than given him a rest?

Against Chelsea and Sevilla, Odegaard was poor. He looked tired.

Only Ben White and William Saliba had played more minutes this season for us, and neither get through the workload Odegaard does.

He is not only our creative outlet, but also the man that triggers our high press. It should not be a surprise that at some stages during the season he looks both physically and mentally fatigued.

Gabriel Magalhaes was also given a weekend off, with Jakub Kiwior coming in for the Brazilian. Interesting that the same pal who said “Odegaard dropped” later said “Gabriel has been rested”.

The hope would have been that we destroy Sheffield United, and do not have to bring on either Odegaard to try and win the game, or Gabriel to try and hold on. At 5-0 I would say the rest and rotation tactic worked.

The comfortable win also saw Ben White get a little break, taken off with half an hour left to play. Gabriel Martinelli was also taken off at the same time.

10-minutes after those two subs, Bukayo Saka was taken off. He was followed by Emile Smith Rowe and then Declan Rice.

We finished the game with Raya, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Elneny, Nelson Havertz, Vieira, Trossard, Nketiah. You could easily argue that just 3 (Raya, Saliba, Zinchenko), were part of our strongest XI. Maybe 4 if you include Kai Havertz.

That is how you want to finish a game after a European away. A nice easy win and hardly any of your first XI on the pitch at the final whistle.

When we signed Kai Havertz, I blogged that he provided Arteta with 6 tactical options. One of those was that it would enable the manager to rest Odegaard, with Havertz playing on the right of the two-8s. That is exactly what happened Saturday.

With West Ham mid-week in the cup, I expect Arteta to play a bit of a 50/50 team and have an eye on Newcastle.

I expect Odegaard’s rest to continue and we will likely see both Saka and Martinelli on the bench. That will mean starts for Havertz, Trossard and Nelson. We will probably also see Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah start.

In defence, it will be White and Takehiro Tomiyasu on the flanks and Kiwior at centre back. He will be joined by either William Saliba or Gabriel. Expect either Mohamed Elneny or Jorginho to come in for Declan Rice, with Aaron Ramsdale in goal.

Newcastle and Sevilla will see Arteta returning to the “strongest possible XI”, before he rests a couple at home to Burnley in the league.

Last year we would not have suffered the burn-out had Arteta had the players available to him to rest and rotate during the early season games. Rice, Havertz, Trossard and Jorginho are 4 players we did not have 12 months ago. All 4 give Arteta those options to give players a rest without seeing a huge drop off in quality.

Get used to players being rested, as I expect to see Arteta continue to shuffle the pack. And a player being rested does not mean they are dropped – if we were playing Man City at home on Saturday, Odegaard would have started.

PS: What a hat trick for Eddie.

UTA.

Keenos