by Declan Rice’s critics, doubters, non-believers – because this is football and there must always be critics – have accused him in the past of cruising through games. Well, not here.
Rice must hate this game sometimes. Or at the very least, he must have felt like he could barely breathe in those periods where he seemed to be playing three or four jobs at the same time, always jockeying, always under pressure , trying to fill the roles of defensive shield, romping ball-carrier, assistant left-back, rondo-leader between the center halves.
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It hardly helped that he was doing it all in a game that played out like an extended version of one of those playground games of murderball, where everyone outside runs high on Skittles, desperate for air and just barrels into each other until the bell rings. again.
But it made for some fine entertainment. Arsenal were resilient at Anfield. Liverpool played on a remarkable pitch of constant agitation. A 1-1 draw is a good result for all involved at the top of the table, right down to the best team in the world, who are currently fifth.
At the end there was talk of Mo Salah’s amazing goal and Arsenal’s central defenders. But Rís was the main player on the pitch, out there playing rhythm, lead, elbow drums, mouth organ, banging the cymbals between his knees, which was crucial to Arsenal’s ability to withstand the Anfield storm.
They would have lost this game with a midfielder who was less adaptable and less tall in that role. And it is clear that Rice is now also crucial to Arsenal’s ability to sustain the campaign that saw them dominate at Christmas, where they have won 10 of their past 14 titles. But there was also a cautionary note here, the sight of a footballer in a hyperextension position. Is it sustainable?
A crucial moment, and also very funny on 71 minutes. Arsenal lost the ball at a corner. From there Liverpool broke with maniacal speed, five red shirts spinning up, like the final of the 60 meters at the world indoor championships. Rice was of course the lone yellow shirt back to fill the breach. Against this he did almost everything at the same time, back-pedalling, running forward, leaning to the side, whirling arms, a kind of one-man defensive solstice dance.
The ball was swept to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who hit it on the crossbar. But these moments will laugh at Mikel Arteta, who wants control, not individual heroes, not this football version of the battle of Thermopylae.
Rice didn’t win the official man of the match award, but Arsenal did was the game at times. His numbers tell part of the story. Five clearances. Four tackles. Ninety touches, a thousand more than any other midfielder, with almost every touch of Rice under pressure and Liverpool pressed brilliantly after the opening 20 minutes, forcing Arsenal to fight just to get the ball out of their own half.
Pass-completion stats often mean very little, but here Rice’s 88% was a testament to the horror of that offense. At the end Jürgen Klopp came across and hugged him, caressed his neck, pulled him into his ear. Klopp does this to everyone of course, and would probably have done it to the corner flags if his assistants hadn’t directed him. But he knew how well Rice had played, and he knew that Liverpool would probably have won without him.
Covering an entire deep midfield is a rare gift. But for all Martin Ødegaard’s adaptability, and Kai Havertz getting better at doing Kai Havertz things, Arsenal haven’t been able to put Thomas Partey alongside Rice for games like this. That pairing will certainly be needed as the season winds down.
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Here Arteta chose the same starting XI for the third league game in a row. Klopp replaced the lord of chaos, Darwin Núñez, with the more orderly Cody Gakpo. And Arsenal like a four-litre saloon began to spin up through the gears, pressing with real fire and scoring after four minutes from another league piece. Gabriel Magalhães’ header was a meaty, powerful neck-wrenching thing, the snap timed so that Alisson could only pounce on empty air.
Liverpool pressed back. Anfield began to shout and roar and send those familiar waves of noise barreling around the stands. The equalizer came with a brilliant pass from Alexander-Arnold, sending the ball wailing in a low, flat arc that mirrored the night sky and into Salah’s path. He walked through Oleksandr Zinchenko as he was a pile of wet leaves, then crushed the hammer, Break the ball down David Raya.
Liverpool started to get hold of the midfield. For a while Zinchenko looked like he was playing in a pair of Heelys every time Salah went near him. But in the end this felt like a good point, and a good moment for Arsenal to be on top of the table. The zippy midfield interplay was encouraging. The center backs are really great. And Rís was always there, always extended, always directly in charge of those central spaces. This will take them all close. Is it enough?
Arsenal were also top of the league at Christmas last year, five points clear of City, who managed to swing 10 points the other way by the end of May. A few things have changed since then. The City has yet to hit the same pitch. They have beaten Arsenal this season. Most important of all, they have Rice; although the Anfield lesson was that he might just need a little help there.
