Arsenal ruthlessly preyed on Manchester City’s errors in a resounding 5-1 victory and few players are better at forcing and reading an opponent’s mistakes than Declan Rice.

The rest of the Premier League should be thankful that City failed to pair Rice with Rodri when they were interested in the England international in the summer of 2023. With Rodri still on the sidelines, City simply do not possess a central midfielder with Rice’s range, athleticism and aggression and their power deficit was evident again at the Emirates on Sunday.

After a slow start to the season following the European Championship, Rice has been back to his all-action best over the past month. The debate over whether he is best deployed in a deeper role as a No 6 or more advanced appears, for the time being, to be settled given Arsenal’s interest in Martín Zubimendi. Whether those positional distinctions matter is another question; nobody tried to categorise Patrick Vieira as a number, he was simply Arsenal’s best midfielder just like Rice.

One of the advantages of Rice playing further forward is that his immense ball-winning capacity can be used to pinch the ball off opponents in dangerous positions. It sometimes feels as if Rice is a magnet to the ball, but he is also very cute at deceiving opponents into thinking they have more time than they really do.

“Rice is one of those, an all-round midfielder – a bit like Roy Keane,” said Telegraph Sport columnist Jamie Carragher after the game on Sky Sports. “He’s almost a throwback to a midfielder in a 4-4-2 who can do anything. His power, his pressing, he’s a wonderful midfield player.”

Rice was on the scene for both of Arsenal’s best moments in a cagey first half: Martin Odegaard’s second-minute goal and Kai Havertz’s glaring miss.

For Arsenal’s opening goal, they are initially set up zonally and are wary of over-committing and pressing City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. Guardiola wants to use his goalkeeper as an extra man, and a forward sprinting brainlessly towards the goalkeeper creates a simple two-on-one and an easy pass out. Crucially, Havertz is blocking the passing lane to Manuel Akanji.

This pushes Ortega to pass the ball left to John Stones, who is in an unfamiliar position left of centre in City’s defence. The pass is played to his weaker foot, a classic trigger for a press. Arsenal then began to orient to more of a man-to-man scheme, with Odegaard pressuring Stones and Rice targeting Kovacic.

Stones works the ball back to his right foot, and attempts to find Akanji with a square pass. If City had a left-footer at left centre-back, the ball would probably have been played out to Josko Gvardiol in one smooth moment. Square passes in your own half are also a common pressing trigger, and Leandro Trossard jumps to Akanji.

The City defender takes a clumsy pair of touches in quick succession, and Trossard robs him of possession. Arsenal’s Belgian winger has not been known as an industrious presser throughout his career, but put in a huge shift on Arsenal’s left. One of many things Arsenal are seeking to replace in the absence of Bukayo Saka is his defensive diligence on the flank.

Rice is there to pounce on the loose ball, and he turns a simple but effective first-time pass into Havertz with the outside of his foot. The pass was straightforward, but Arsenal are sometimes guilty of taking too many touches in the final third. Havertz teed up Odegaard to give Arsenal the perfect start.

For Havertz’s chance later in the half, we see the same pressing detail from Arsenal, but this time it is Odegaard rather than Havertz who is blocking the passing lane from Ortega to Akanji. When an outfield player presses the goalkeeper, as Odegaard is doing here, it means a City outfield player is spare but Ortega cannot find the angle to pass to Akanji. Had Ederson been fit, perhaps he would have tried scooping the ball over Odegaard’s head.

Instead, Ortega plays a straight pass into Kovacic, who can hear the thundering hooves of Rice fast approaching behind him. The Arsenal midfielder has all of the natural momentum and can see the situation, while Kovacic has a standing start. The Croatian will have extricated himself with a cute turn or wall-pass backwards many times over his career, but on this occasion he was caught in Rice’s Venus flytrap.

Only Rice will know his intentions, but his tackle also appeared to be a pass. Playing the ball with the outside of his foot seemed deliberate, knowing that Havertz was unmarked to his right. The German dragged his shot wide of the post, but atoned later in the game.

Rice finished the game with two assists, the first was a disguised ball played against the grain to find Myles Lewis-Skelly in a pocket of space. The second was a sweeping 50-yard diagonal to Ethan Nwaneri. By the end of the game, no player on the pitch had created more chances than Rice’s three. There was a constructive side to his destructive interventions, and Rice showed City and Guardiola the attributes they need to add in their upcoming midfield rebuild.