How Arsenal beat Chelsea to Declan Rice transfer

Rice signed for Arsenal last week in a British record deal of £100m plus £5m in add-ons.

If all goes to plan, Arsenal will have one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe on their books for many years to come.

Such a signing is huge for Arsenal as they look to push for the Premier League title and compete in the Champions League.

However, Arsenal first had to beat Manchester City and Chelsea to the Englishman’s signature.

And now, Ben Jacobs has provided an insight into how that happened:

“Rice was originally open to returning to Chelsea but just not sold by the pitch,” he said “And he always feared Potter wouldn’t be the manager he would end up playing under, and was ultimately proven right.

“Arteta was extremely hands on in the pitch presenting Rice with a lengthy presentation. This included how he would improve Rice’s attacking numbers even further. Rice was told he could get into double figures at Arsenal in terms of goal-scoring without necessarily changing his identity too much. This comes off the back of two seasons where Rice has scored five goals in all competitions.

“Arteta values Rice’s progressive passing, leadership and made it clear to the 24-year-old he would be a staple of the team for several seasons if all goes to plan.

“Rice also did his own homework speaking to Aaron Ramsdale and Bukayo Saka about Arsenal and Arteta.”

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