Arsenal are one of the two English sides \u2013 alongside Liverpool \u2013 to have secured passage into the next round of the Champions League after beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur have all been knocked out at this stage and the Gunners are flying the flag high.<\/p>\n
Read More: <\/strong>Arsenal\u2019s potential Champions League semi-final opponents confirmed as route to final mapped out<\/p>\n Steven Gerrard, formerly of the Merseysiders, was in attendance to watch Mikel Arteta\u2019s men oversee their win against the Bundesliga side and he was very complimentary of one player in particular.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, it was Eberechi Eze that took the game by the scruff of the neck for Arsenal: his strike in the 36th minute gave them some hope after a string of top saves from Leverkusen\u2019s Mark Flekken.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t the ex-Crystal Palace man who caught the attention of Steven Gerrard; that was Declan Rice instead.<\/p>\n Amid competition, Arteta\u2019s men won the \u00a3105 million race for Rice\u2019s signature in the summer of 2023 and he moved across the capital to join from West Ham United.<\/p>\n At that point, Liverpool were (although they didn\u2019t know at the time) embarking on their final hurrah with Jurgen Klopp in the dugout. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going from strength to strength. I think he\u2019s one of the best in the world. I think he has become one of the best in the world. It was a fantastic move for him,\u201d Gerrard said about his compatriot post-match.<\/p>\n Gerrard then insisted that he wishes that Liverpool were the ones who got their hands on the Englishman. \u201cI wish we (Liverpool) signed him here, actually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWest Ham did a great job under David Moyes, I think David Moyes has really schooled him in how to play the position tactically.<\/p>\n \u201cHis confidence from playing well for England and being around that group of players, he\u2019s just gone to the next level now at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n \u201cFantastic coaching from him and he\u2019s up there now in the shout to be one of the world\u2019s best in that position and in that role,\u201d he concluded, per The Metro<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rice was reportedly on Klopp\u2019s radar during the 2023 midfield rebuild before the Reds picked up Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. The latter is no doubt a fantastic player \u2013 but Rice is a level above it must be said.<\/p>\n Having opened talks to extend his contract in north London, it\u2019s clear that Declan Rice \u2013 among Arteta\u2019s most important players \u2013 is staying put. But just how important is the 27-year-old from London? Well\u2026 very!<\/p>\n It would be easy to look on the surface and suggest that Arsenal\u2019s midfield would suffer with Rice not in the side; but the statistics back that up.<\/p>\n In the Premier League, he leads the squad for key passes per match (1.9), puts up the second-most tackles (1.9) and has played the third-most minutes of any player in the squad (2,585) \u2013 behind David Raya and Martin Zubimendi.<\/p>\n Statistics aside, he is also very versatile. With Zubimendi now sitting deeper, the England international has been thrust into a more advanced role \u2013 often operating between both boxes \u2013 and a new side of his game has been unlocked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arsenal are one of the two English sides \u2013 alongside Liverpool \u2013 to have secured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018One of the best in the world\u2019 \u2013 Gerrard waxes lyrical about Arsenal star<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Arsenal](\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/MixCollage-05-Mar-2026-09-25-AM-3651-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nHow important is Declan Rice to Arsenal<\/strong>?<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n Metric<\/td>\n Output<\/td>\n Squad rank<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Minutes<\/td>\n 2585<\/td>\n 3rd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Pass success rate (%)<\/td>\n 87.8<\/td>\n 9th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tackles per match<\/td>\n 1.9<\/td>\n 2nd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Interceptions per match<\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n 2nd=<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Key passes per match<\/td>\n 1.9<\/td>\n 1st=<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Overall rating<\/td>\n 7.32<\/td>\n 1st=<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n