Arsenal: Mikel Arteta set for early Christmas present after exciting Declan Rice declaration

Just as Arsenal are about to head into the busy festive period, it looks like Mikel Arteta is set to get an early Christmas present.

After picking up the man of the match award on Wednesday night following Arsenal’s win over Manchester United, a beaming Declan Rice declared he was back to his best.

“Tonight, I just had a different energy,” he said. “I just wanted to do anything for the team to win and in the second half, I would have done anything tonight to get the three points. I’m buzzing.

“It’s been a slow start to the season for me personally, I think off the back of a long Euros it’s taken a while for me to get going, but I think the last few weeks I’ve been feeling much better and back to my best.”

A resurgent Rice will be music to Arteta’s ears as Arsenal look to keep pace with Liverpool in the title race.

The midfielder has had a difficult start to the season, but it is not hard to understand why when you look back at the work he got through this summer during England’s march to the final of Euro 2024.

Rice covered 85.7km during the tournament, which was 6.2km more than any other player. He also was one of only four England players to play every minute.

Such a workload clearly took its toll on Rice, who himself admits it has been a “slow start” to the current campaign.

A broken toe picked up last month only made matters worse, but he was back to his best against Manchester United on Wednesday.

Rice was at the heartbeat of Arsenal’s second-half performance, bringing the energy they lacked in the first-half.

Defensively, he was at his monstrous best. The 25-year-old won more tackles and made more interceptions than any other Arsenal player.

The Gunners have missed that dynamic impact from Rice and the fact he now feels back ready to compete at his usual level again is a major boost.

Arsenal are about to head into the busiest part of the season and now, more than ever, a player with Rice’s athleticism should show their value.

Arteta will hope that starts this Sunday, when Arsenal head to Fulham looking to make it five wins on the spin.

Craven Cottage was the scene of Arsenal’s worst performance of the season last year and Arteta tore into his players after.

“Today was our worst game of the season,” he said. “The pace, the purpose we have in attack, defensively we were second best, we could not dominate and had issues because of that. We were sloppy with the ball. It wasn’t good enough. We didn’t deserve to win.”

Declan Rice

Arsenal cannot afford another performance like that this weekend against a Fulham side who have impressed this season.

Much of that has been down to their string of former Arsenal players, which includes Alex Iwobi, Bernd Leno, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson.

Of the quartet, it has been Iwobi that has caught the eye the most. The midfielder scored twice in Thursday’s 3-1 win over Brighton and has five Premier League goals this season, which is the same as Bukayo Saka.

“I always liked him a lot,” said Arteta, who played with Iwobi towards the end of his Arsenal career.

“I always thought he had tremendous quality, a very special talent. A talent that has the capacity to play in different spaces and positions as well. I am really happy to see him playing at that level.”