Jamie Carragher has claimed that Arsenal would not be in the Premier League title race this season if Declan Rice had joined Manchester City.
During the previous summer transfer window, Arsenal signed Rice from West Ham United in a deal worth £105m after City had a £90m offer rejected for the midfielder.
His latest appearance for the Gunners saw the Englishman score a late winner in Arsenal’s 4-3 match against Luton Town.
This has since led to one pundit sharing his thoughts on the player and what impact he could have on this season’s title race.
Carragher says Rice would have been a pivotal signing for City
Written in his latest column for The Telegraph, Carragher had this to say about Rice and what the title race would have looked like if he had joined City instead of Arsenal.
He said: “City were interested, of course, and there would have been no chance for Arsenal this season if Rice had gone to the Etihad instead of the Emirates.
“With him in their team, Arsenal have a player who will become a club legend — and a man who could bring the Premier League title back to north London.”
Since arriving at the north London club, the 24-year-old has featured in all but one of Arsenal’s 23 games across all competitions, starting 21 of them.
This shows how much of an important player he has already become in Mikel Arteta’s side.
Across his 15 league games, Rice has made more passes into the final third of the pitch (112) and has a higher total of combined tackles and interceptions than anyone else at the club (51).
His performances in the league have earned him an overall season rating of 7.27/10 from WhoScored, making him the second-highest rated player at Arsenal.
With all of that in mind, it’s clear that Rice is proving himself to be a top signing for the Gunners and one that will give his side a chance of taking the Premier League trophy away from City.
From the treble winner’s perspective, it would be interesting to see if there were any regrets behind the scenes about not landing a deal for the midfielder.
