Mikel Arteta admitted he thought Declan Rice had made the dream begin to life on the Emirates. The England worldwide seemed set to attain on his dwelling debut in opposition to Monaco in a pleasant after 41 minutes had elapsed, Rice’s shirt quantity.

The £105m man pounced on a speculative move by Takehiro Tomiyasu, burst between two defenders… just for his shot to be blocked by Chrislain Matsima as an alternative of hitting the again of the web.

His Arsenal supervisor stated: “I didn’t see the defender coming so quickly so I thought he was in - and he can finish when he’s in those positions.

“He played more advanced today. He played more as an attacking midfielder today. It was the first time that he’s played there and he’s in the journey to get back to his best and adapt to the team.”

The growing qualities of Rice as a defensive midfielder of real world class with England and a season spent at West Ham battling relegation with rearguard motion very a lot the precedence have maybe disguised the true motive Arteta was so insistent the Arsenal board make the 24-year-old his high switch precedence this summer season.

It had been anticipated that he would play within the Thomas Partey place, on the correct and additional again.

Instead, in opposition to Monaco, for 61 minutes earlier than being taken off he ploughed the left channel most well-liked by Granit Xhaka, getting additional ahead than he usually has up to now in his profession.

His interaction with Gabriel Martinelli particularly counsel he can be an additional attacking drive for the Gunners as a lot as defensive cowl - and higher ending final evening might need received the sport for Arsenal earlier than the 5-4 penalty shoot-out success.

“He has the versatility to play different roles and it’s something that we want to do to maximise the quality of other players who have the ability to play together,” Arteta defined “We will use him in different positions.”

It is a disgrace that one in all them is just not centre-back, with Youssouf Fofana discovering it far too straightforward to open the scoring earlier than Eddie Nketiah scored in his function deputising for the injured Gabriel Jesus.

But Rice could be very a lot the £105m cog that Arteta must make his new-look, title-challenging machine run like clockwork.

“There are certain rotations that we want, especially to adapt to the quality of the players that we have and to make sure that they’re comfortable occupying certain spaces,” he stated.

“You can see sometimes when the timing in the dynamic wasn’t perfect and how we allowed certain spaces when we had time on the ball, and then how we defended those open spaces. But we will adjust.”