Declan Rice is set to complete a £100million move to Arsenal – but how does he compare to the midfield options that are currently at Mikel Arteta’s disposal?
Rice came through West Ham’s academy and has gone from strength to strength in recent years, most notably captaining the club to Europa Conference League glory last season.
He also attracted interest from Manchester City and Bayern Munich but Arsenal won the race for his signature after agreeing to pay an initial £100million and a further £5million in add-ons.
The 24-year-old already knows some of his future teammates, including Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him,” Smith Rowe told The Sun. “I remember my first (England) camp and I was surprised with how good he actually was.
“He was the best in training. Just his level, intensity, technically, everything he was doing. A real leader and still so young. He was really, really good.”
Using Whoscored stats, we’ve looked into Rice’s league stats from last season and compared his numbers to Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Jorginho, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.
Note: Xhaka has since joined Bayer Leverkusen but we’ve still included his stats for comparison. We’ve also used Jorginho’s stats from his time at Arsenal instead of his Chelsea stats from the first half of last season.
Goals and assists
Odegaard added an improved end product to his game in 2022/23, registering 15 goals and seven assists in the Premier League. The Norway international was averaging a direct goal contribution every 143.1 minutes.
Xhaka was given more license to get forward under Arteta, and he got 14 goal contributions (seven goals and seven assists) at a rate of one every 214.5 minutes.
Despite playing as a striker for Chelsea in the 2022/23 season, Havertz only comes third here. He registered seven goals and one assist, averaging a direct goal contribution every 322.5 minutes.
Rice got four goals and two assists for West Ham at a rate of one goal contribution every 545.3 minutes, but he is looking to improve his end product.
“With my ability, I want to start scoring more goals,” Rice told GOAL in 2022. “I should be hitting 10 every season. I feel like that’s a goal for me that I should be able to hit, and let’s see if I can do it.”
Partey didn’t register an assist last season but did score against Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, taking his minutes-per-goal involvement ratio to 829 minutes.
While Jorginho is yet to score for Arsenal, he did register one assist during 855 minutes of top-flight action in the second half of the 2022/23 season.
Shots, dribbles, and retaining possession
It should come as no surprise that Odegaard had 15 goals in 2022/23, given he made 2.7 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League.
Havertz averaged 2.5 shots per 90 but Xhaka (1.2), Rice (1.0), Partey (1.0) and Jorginho (0.6) were far more hesitant in front of goal.
Odegaard also leads the way when it comes to dribbling, completing 1.4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 58.3%. Partey follows closely behind with 1.3 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a much better completion rate of 76.5%.
Rice averaged 1.0 successful dribbles at a success rate of 55.6% while Havertz was on 0.6 per 90 minutes at a 28.6% completion rate.
Xhaka (0.5) and Jorginho (0.3) find themselves at the bottom of the pile, although the Switzerland international had a success rate of 55.6% while Jorginho’s completion rate was 30%.
Rice, Partey and Xhaka are all excellent at maintaining possession and were dispossessed just 0.7 times per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2022/23.
Jorginho (0.8) follows closely behind but Odegaard and Havertz often lost possession as they both got dispossessed 1.3 times per 90 minutes.
Passing
Odegaard was the most creative midfielder on this list, averaging 2.2 key passes per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2022/23.
Xhaka finished second in this respect with 1.4 key passes, which is more than Havertz (1.3), Rice (1.0), Partey (0.9) and Jorginho (0.5) averaged.
But Jorginho is renowned for his ability on the ball and attempted 77.1 passes per 90 minutes in the second half of last season.
That puts the former Chelsea midfielder ahead of Partey (70.4), Rice (57.3), Odegaard (48.3), Xhaka (47.1) and Havertz (30.3).
Rice and Partey come out on top for passing accuracy with a pass success rate of 88%. They are then followed by Jorginho (87.6%), Xhaka (86.5%), Odegaard (84%), and Havertz (82.4%).
Having completed 0.3 through balls per league game in 2022/23, Odegaard was the winner in this regard ahead of Partey (0.2), Jorginho (0.1), Xhaka (0.1), Havertz (0.1) and Rice (0).
Defensive contributions
While Rice can play in a more advanced role, he’s won plenty of plaudits at West Ham for his defensive work in the middle of the park.
The 24-year-old ended the 2022/23 campaign with more interceptions than anyone else in the Premier League, averaging 1.7 per 90 minutes.
Partey has been linked with a move away from the Emirates but posted a higher average (1.0) than Jorginho (0.9), Xhaka (0.4), Odegaard (0.2) and Havertz (0.2).
Rice also comes out on top for clearances per 90 minutes. His total of 1.5 betters Partey’s 1.4, Havertz’s 1.4, Xhaka’s 1.2, Jorginho’s 0.8 and Odegaard’s 0.3.
The England international is renowned for his tenacity and completed 2.2 successful tackles per 90 minutes last season. That puts him just behind Partey (2.5) but ahead of Jorginho (1.9), Havertz (1.2), Xhaka (1.0) and Odegaard (1.0).
In terms of aerial duels, Havertz leads the way after winning 2.8 per 90 minutes. Partey is second with 1.3 and he’s then followed by Jorginho (1.1), Xhaka (1.1), Rice (1.0) and Odegaard (0.7).
Jorginho wins a lot of free-kicks for Arsenal and he comes out on top for fouls drawn (1.9 per 90 minutes). That puts him ahead of Xhaka (1.2), Havertz (0.9), Parety (0.8), Odegaard (0.7) and Rice (0.3).
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