That Pep Guardiola is willing to retreat from a £105m battle for Declan Rice’s signature suggests he is still confident of beating Mikel Arteta in the longer war of the 2023-24 title race.
Arsenal are now in pole position to sign the West Ham midfielder after Manchester City withdrew their interest. With Mateo Kovacic having replaced the outgoing Ilkay Gundogan and amidst hope that Rodri will stay in spite of interest from Barcelona, Guardiola’s need was never so great as Arteta’s.
Yet the north Londoners are on the verge of fixing a long-standing issue that risked deepening with the imminent departures of Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey.
Arteta did his best to turn Xhaka into a box-to-box midfielder, with some – though not total – success. The Swiss midfielder’s Arsenal career was salvaged to such an extent that he now heads for Bayer Leverkusen the subject of redemptive praise, not ire, as was once the case in his strained relationship with the club’s fans. Partey, meanwhile, is believed to be attracting interest from Italy and Saudi Arabia.
Replacing Partey is the bigger ask for Rice, not least because he was perhaps the Arsenal midfielder with the most defined role. The incoming West Ham legend – and he will be remembered as such after bowing out – steps in neatly to compensate for Arteta losing Partey’s defensive solidity.
Rice made more interceptions than any other Premier League player last season (63) and made 78 tackles (with a success rate of 81 per cent – up from 66 per cent in the previous campaign).
A necessary aid to this Arsenal side’s shape without the ball and with it, no one in England’s top flight won possession as many times as him (334). Since 2017-18, his pass completion has not fallen below 86 per cent over a whole campaign.
That speaks of his evolution from a right-sided centre-back as a youngster. Indeed a move of this significance might well have happened sooner in his career had he not taken so long to shake off that notion of a defender experimenting in midfield in his early years.
At 24 years of age, his attacking output has improved too. Four goals and two assists in 2022-23 was his career best tally even as West Ham struggled domestically. The midfielder was by far their standout performer and was Gareth Southgate’s first choice at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, averaging more passes per game than any other England midfielder.
Exactly how he operates as a deep-lying playmaker could depend on the personnel around him, with Arteta expected to maintain a 4-3-3 system. Jorginho has announced he will stay despite speculation linking him with a transfer away just five months after his arrival, but Mohamed Elneny and Albert Sambi Lokonga are among a long list who could be move on.
Romeo Lavia has also been targeted, the 19-year-old Southampton midfielder who models himself on Fernandinho, but with Liverpool and Newcastle also monitoring the teenager Arsenal are thought to be reluctant to engage in a bidding war. Rice will take up a not inconsiderable amount of their summer budget as he prepares to become the most expensive British footballer of all time.
Arsenal are happy to sanction that in the hope he can single-handedly transform their midfield.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/yPGRkpi
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