Declan Rice back to his best as Arsenal secure draw at Man United, prepare for deep Champions League run

Although 2025 felt the year earlier in which Arsenal continues to lose important players, there is good news for Mikel Arteta. The old declan rice, the one you would spend £ 105 million and have the feeling that you would get a bargain, has turned out to be back to life. Nowhere was that clearer than at Old Trafford, where he saved his side from the shame of not scoring on the one hand and the even more abject humiliation of leaving a Manchester United striker in the other.

This season started as a difficult rice. No wonder he had placed the pure charge he had in his first season after he had left West Ham United. Among his new teammates, only Centerback William Saliba and Gabriel had played more minutes in 2023-24, which was then followed by the full 690 minutes at Euro 2024. They could call him the horse in London Colney, but there were a valid fear that he had beaten in the early months of this season.

That has changed since the calendars. The influence of Rice Beyond set pieces is steadily growing, just as his future team needed him the most. He had roughly walked over the champions last month, had walked on a tough night in Nottingham and the man-to-man system of PSV Eindhoven in the midweek in the midweek.

It may not be obvious for him, but at a time when Arsenal helps all they need they can get. The vision of Arteta had always been to get that out of rice, because a player of such dynamics can threaten the box while he still comes back in time to close the opposition counter. You could not discuss that assessment at Old Trafford.

Sunday was rice in the form of those all-action midfielders that they know all too well in this part of the world, a finish by Paul Scholes on the one hand and tackling the other like Roy Keane.

His caught finish showed the feeling of a real number eight from where he could effectively influence the game. For 20 minutes, the midfield of United Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes had fallen to the six-year box. Rice seemed to understand that and so when Jurrien Timber shot into the penalty area, the English international found a bag of space just within the penalty area, enough to hit a shot that burst against Andre Onana’s post before nesting in the net.

If Rice had not found a way, it was not easy to see how someone else would have. For an hour and a quarter of Arsenal weird on a united system that started to look like a back 11 after the free kick of Bruno Fernandes – understandably when it facilitated the hosts who came to the counter. Arsenal had all the possession and the territory they needed, but rarely changed it into an overwhelming pressure on Onana. That is life without one of the first choice ahead, at least until Gabriel Martinelli returned to the hour of a hamstring injury.

The shape of Leandro Trossard remains reliably unreliable, a wonderful touch to make itself in the first half, but little different impactful. Ethan Nwaneri started clearly, but he is 18 years old. Mikel Merino is not a striker. With Martin Odegaard opposite a double or triple team, there was not much that could be done differently than trying to cut balls over the two defensive lines of United. Rice almost came to one of them in the first half and seemed to be a threat to the back post. Until Bukayo Saka returns, there will be more tough days for the Arsenal attack if they depend on rice as their primary target threat, but if the forward line seems more in itself, their box-crashing could become a more powerful weapon.

Yet Rice was not in the mood for personal boosterism in the last whistle. He knew how close to his side had come to give away the small reward they had claimed in Old Trafford.

“In the second half we did things that we didn’t do the entire season,” Rice told Sky Sports. “We were very naive in the last 10 minutes and could easily have handed the game to Man United. They have that individual threat. It was a bit stupidity of us.

“Second balls, we tried to drop balls when the ball dropped. We lost our runners and tried to play from behind with patterns that we never do, perfectly play in the Manchester United press. It could have been easy to take advantage.”

Rice did not choose specific cases when Arsenal failed. He didn’t have to. When Mikel Merino had picked his pocket in the 84th minute, it seemed like the whole world that United would again find a way to beat the Gunners in Old Trafford, regardless of the difficult circumstances in which they were. Rasmus Hojlund was because of the goal, opening the ball to roll the ball along David Raya, who had made and would go to make saves that was no more crucial than the late intervention of rice.

Yet Raya was not called on this occasion. The danger was already spotted and the first touch of Hojlund both opened his body to shoot and opened a road for rice to stick out one of those telescopic legs and to strike the ball to safety.

“If I had responded a second later, Hojlund places that in the back of the net,” he said. “He showed me a bit of the ball and of course with the long legs I managed to get around it. It could have been a penalty and potential red. It was a 50-50.”

Rice turned out to be the Rice of Arsenal at each end. It is hardly the first time that has been the case, but perhaps the first in a while. Just when his side needs him the most, Rice returned to the highest level. It is one that few others can match.