Yesterday I went through the defence, so today I thought I’d do some musing over our midfield. Yesterday I also gave an honourable mention to Declan Rice, because I do truly believe that the trio of Gabriel, Saliba and Rice are the main reason as to why we were so miserly in conceding goals, but as we’ve learned this season with his performances, this player is so much more than a blocking number six.

Rice has been an absolute revelation at The Arsenal and whilst last summer on my holiday’s I was watching the saga unfold as we battled City for his signature thinking that we were over-paying at £100million (plus add ons), I now see exactly why Arteta and Edu essentially pulled out all of the stops.

Of course football is about goals and tomorrow I’ll do some words on our attacking players, so much is about shutting out your opponent, but a cog that you cannot overlook is the midfield and this season Rice has been the stand out player for me.

If you’ve read a fair bit of my ramblings you’ll know that my Brother (and nephew) are West Ham fans. One whole half of my family are West Ham fans and over the summer we chatted about Rice. For me he was a £60million, max £65million player. You don’t pay the big bucks for a guy who sits in front of the back four and screens. But he has shown me the error of my ways and I think he’s even been better than he was for West Ham last season. In an Arsenal team at the top of the division he has shown his amazing ability to win the ball whilst staying on his feet, as well as the lung-busting runs that we saw at West Ham. But I feel like he’s elevated his game in the attacking third too; he’s got a fantastic range of passing that I never expected to see and he’s also come up with some crucial goals. He scored the winner against Luton in the dying stages after a difficult game, he scored the winner against United in the dying stages too. He’s also shown a penchant for a wonder strike too and put a cherry on the cake with his peach of a goal against his former club too.

He’s durable as well. At a time in which we have all come to admit that Partey’s days are probably numbered given his lack of availability, Declan Rice has been an ever present. He is an all-round midfielder and I love that we have him; and at a good age too. Hopefully he can be the bedrock of our midfield for the next six to seven years minimum. Let’s also have an honourable mention for his Game of Thrones moment against Liverpool at Anfield. Pressing for a goal and finding ourselves countered on by Liverpool’s rapid transition football, that moment in which Rice was the only Arsenal player against Four Liverpool attackers and Raya became a meme and a screenshot still that reverberated through Arsenal Twitter. His positioning was excellent and it forced Trent to go for a speculative pot shot in which admittedly we got away with, but ultimately salvaged us a point at Anfield which a few year’s ago would have been a rarity.

As for the rest of the midfield, well, it’s a bit of a weird one because the only real ever-present that you can talk abotu with any specific detail is Martin Odegaard. Partey barely played any football, Vieira and Smith Rowe were bit-part players. I will do a shout out for Jorginho because at times he was very important, but Odegaard and Rice are the stand out performers for me. Odegaard’s pressing, his vision, his goals, it’s just amazing. And to top it all off he’s an exemplary captain too. True skipper material and when you see the way he represents The Arsenal and the values of the club, it makes you proud. I really felt for him on that final day; he was exhausted after a long season, he was gutted, yet he still had that drive and burning feeling to say he just wanted to get back on the training pitch. We are so lucky to have him because he has shown us why Arteta made him captain. He presses like a beast too. His equaliser at home to Man United had a real Bacary Sagna “eff you” feel to it and I absolutely loved it. Like Rice he’s also durable; he missed two games all season due to a hip problem.

And finally for today, I’ll mention Jorginho. I know Havertz played a bit in the left eight role and I could in theory include him in today, but I think his story has to be told in the context of the attackers, so I’ll save him for tomorrow. But Jorgi has been great. He hasn’t started loads of games, but there was a period in the season earlier this year in which his form has been pretty special. In fact I’ll retract my earlier statement about the only two players who you could really focus on in the midfield were Rice and Odegaard, because Jorginho has had some pretty big games too, especially in big matches. He was great at home to Liverpool and Newcastle and he is a model of consistency. You could see why Arsenal were super keen to tie him down to that additional year; his experience and knowhow next season will be invaluable for us. I think he’ll play in a fair few games too. When he arrived I – like many of you guys – was sceptical. This was a guy in an ailing Chelsea team who some of them were delighted to see the back of. Plus he apparently couldn’t run and liked a sideways pass. But Arteta and Guardiola love him for a reason and we’ve seen some examples of that this season and last season to be fair. He’s been a great addition to the squad and I don’t think you’d find many Gooners who aren’t happy he’s sticking around for another year.

And speaking of sticking around, I think i’ll head off for today. I’m off to Portugal for some sunshine later so need to crack on with work this morning so I can go and fill myself with red wine from Douro and Sagres beer.

Catch you all tomorrow.