Was this the most complete performance of Declan Rice’s West Ham United career?
It’s a question we don’t pose lightly. Ever since establishing himself as a first-team regular at the London Stadium, Rice has been a load-bearing pillar of consistency and reliability in the centre of the park. The beating heart of this Hammers side.
A more than fitting recipient of Mark Noble’s armband.
Rice captained West Ham again during Thursday’s UEFA Conference League quarter-final second-leg clash with KAA Gent, and responded with the very definition of a ‘captain’s performance’. Arguably his very best in claret and blue.
And that’s saying something.
Arsenal make West Ham’s Declan Rice their top summer target
There were shades of Bryan Robson, of Roy Keane, of Steven Gerrard, about the way Rice ran the game from the centre of the park. Charging into tackles, fizzing passes from side to side, leading by example.
If there is one area of Rice’s game ripe for improvement, it concerns his ability to stick the ball in the back of the net. Before last night, he had scored only 14 goals in over 200 West Ham games. His tally stands at 15 now; the finest strike of Rice’s senior career showcasing every one of his attributes all within the same 10 second burst of magisterial midfield play.
First Rice snatched back possession. Then, he embarked upon a lung-busting run from deep inside his own half. And, when eventually arriving at the edge of the Gent boss, Rice demonstrated his oft-undervalued technical quality by making space and slotting home.
Rice’s £100 million price-tag may be a little on the eye-watering side. But, if any Arsenal supporters were wondering why the Gunners appear to have installed Rice as their number one summer target, this supreme performance of multi-faceted perfection should have gone some way to providing an explanation.
Arsenal have a midfield made up largely of specialists. The tough-tackling Thomas Partey. The silky Fabio Vieira. The string-pulling Martin Odegaard. Rice, however, is not merely a jack of all trades but a master of most.
‘He has this in his locker’
“Declan Rice has just put a couple more million on his price tag!,” former West Ham defender Anton Ferdinand tells Sky Sports; the England international unleashing the full extent of his powers while steamrollering Gent into submission.
“People see him as someone who holds or breaks up the play. But he has this in his locker.”
According to talkSPORT, Rice is ‘excited’ about the prospect of a fresh start at Arsenal this summer; the Emirates Stadium still his most likely destination.
While his price-tag may have raised eyebrows, the scintillating, goosebump-raising manner with which Rice dragged West Ham by the scruff of the neck into the semi-finals of a European competition means the excitement should now be spreading to the Northern corner of the English capital.
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