Owen Hargreaves stated that it was ‘amazing’ the piece of skill Declan Rice showed off in his warm-up prior to making his Premier League debut for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal against Nottingham Forest on Saturday at the Emirates.
The 24-year-old did start Arsenal’s Community Shield win over Manchester City last week at Wembley, but this was the big one for Declan Rice following his club-record transfer from West Ham United.
You wouldn’t have blamed Rice if he was feeling a little nervous, especially when the game was delayed by half an hour, but going by how he looked during the warm-up, that wasn’t the case.
Former England midfielder Hargreaves was impressed by his magic flick and skills during the warm-up, how it was ‘amazing’ and he didn’t know he was capable of doing such a thing, as he told Premier League Productions (12/08/23 at 12:45 pm).
That relaxed and confident nature translated to his and the team’s performance because they picked up a 2-1 win, thanks to goals from Eddie Nketiah and a stunner from Bukayo Saka.
In truth, Rice should have marked his debut with a goal, but his edge-of-the-box effort was denied by former Arsenal man Matt Turner, who was making his own debut for Nottingham Forest after his recent transfer.
“That was an amazing skill Declan Rice did in the warm-up,” said Hargreaves. “I didn’t think he had it him.”
Bright start for Rice
That’s two games and two wins for the England international. The only negative is that he’s yet to help his team to a clean sheet.
It will only be a matter of time before he helps the team register their first of the campaign, with Arsenal making the trip to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace next Monday night.
Rice has made a bright start at his new club and he does have the freedom to roam forward a lot more now, so it will be a matter of time before he’s increasing those goal contributions.
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