For so long, Declan Rice was Mikel Arteta’s lighthouse. ‘You just look at him and you know where to head,’ said the Arsenal boss. ‘A focal point giving clarity and direction to everybody.’

Only, not any more. Arteta had a chat with his midfield general at the start of the season, one Rice described as a ‘really honest conversation’, to discuss how he wanted his role to evolve.

After setting up Kai Havertz’s winner against Liverpool with a superb overlap run and cross on Sunday, Rice revealed what Arteta had told him.

‘I’ve done well but he believes I can still do more and he's drilled that into me,’ said Rice. ‘This season I've really tried to attack that part going forward, trying to come up with assists, create chances, create moments. Being behind the ball as well, linking the play. Being involved with all aspects, for me, is my best position.’

He’s certainly doing the creative part of that assignment. Rice’s assist for Havertz at Anfield was his fifth of the season, the most of any player in the Premier League, and puts him on track to obliterate his previous high of eight in 2023-24. Remarkably, for the corner specialist at the league's renowned set-piece kings, all five have come from open play.

Rice, too, revealed he’d discussed overlapping before the Liverpool game and told Havertz to attack balls into the box. That’s just what they both did.

In truth, Rice’s role has evolved throughout his time at Arsenal. 

In the very early days at the Emirates, Rice spent most of his time sitting in a defensive midfield role.

As the seasons have progressed, especially after Martin Zubimendi’s arrival last summer, Rice has been freed to drive further up the pitch, and occupy that space in the left channel.

You can see from his heat map over his Arsenal career, where the redder zones reflect more touches in that area, how much that role has shifted.

What’s most noticeable about this season, following the arrival of Bruno Guimaraes and Arteta’s ability to use converted left back Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield, is that Rice has now shifted to the right. 

That has enabled him to link up more effectively with Bukayo Saka or Noni Madueke on that side.

What is perhaps less obvious, but even more telling, is that despite the sight of Rice bursting into the box on the overlap down the right to set up Havertz, he is actually doing most of his creative work and tempo-setting from deeper on the pitch.

As Rice put it, ‘Being behind the ball as well’.

Early in this campaign, he spent a large portion of games picking up possession between Arsenal's centre backs, allowing the champions to create overloads when building up play and bypass an opposition press.

He’s averaging just one touch in the opposition box per game in the league, the lowest number in any season of his Arsenal career. He’s only played a handful of passes all season beyond the edge of the 18-yard box.

And yet it’s making him more influential than ever. He’s playing more forward passes than in any season at the club. More passes into the final third, more line-breaking passes. And he's carrying the ball towards goal more frequently than at any point in his Arsenal career. 

At the same time, he’s having less defensive responsibility, averaging the fewest ball recoveries and possession wins in the final third of any of his seasons at the club.

There is a small caveat to add here. For as clearly effective and influential as he has been in this evolved role, Rice is still overperforming his numbers a little.

His five assists have come from a total open-play expected assists (xA) tally of just 1.07. No one has overperformed that metric – which measures how likely the chances you’ve created are to result in a goal – as much as Rice.

You only need to look back at a few of those assists this season. His one for Madueke against Nottingham Forest was a simple pass out to the touchline where the winger then did all the work to cut inside and bend a beauty into the far corner.

He did the same for Havertz on the other flank for his equaliser against Chelsea. And it was a little sideways pass to Guimaraes against Sunderland that his midfield partner then whacked into the top corner from long range.

By contrast, Martin Odegaard, for so long his side’s creative hub, is yet to claim an assist from open play despite having an xA of 1.9, the fourth-highest in the division.

But that is not to take away from the superb work Rice is doing. Where he’s really showing his expertise is in how simply he’s making those forward creative passes look. Take these examples:

The xA on the above pass might not be high but it creates the opportunity for Havertz to conjure some magic. Short, simple passes that help open up defences.

Rice is doing all this while running less, too. He’s averaging 6.8 miles per game. Over the previous two campaigns, he travelled 7.1.

Perhaps it was always going to have to be this way. It was over the World Cup this summer that the sheer weight of games Rice had played in 2025-26 – 69 for club and country – finally took its toll.

He played through a hamstring injury from Christmas onwards and was substituted early in England’s victory over Croatia with ‘neural pain’ in his back.

'The body's been through a lot this season,’ he said after the semi-final defeat by Argentina. 'I think you can see I'm mentally done, physically done. I need a break now.’

Now, with the likes of Guimaraes and Lewis-Skelly as well as Zubimendi around him, Rice is able to keep starting every game but also do what great midfield metronomes like Rodri and Paul Scholes did before him: control matches without having to bust a gut.

It has allowed Rice to be more selective in his runs forward. Guimaraes, especially, is dynamic enough to sit in for those moments – like at Anfield – when Rice spots the opportunity to make his move.

He did similar against Leeds to set up Guimaraes’ winner, charging into the box to play a neat little backheel to the Brazilian, who fired into the bottom corner.

It allows Arteta, too, to find different ways to open up defences in open play, whether they are sitting deep or pressing man-to-man. Rice is now able to exploit the gaps or pick the locks.

Arsenal have not always had this luxury and, when they frequently struggled to do so in the past, had to turn to set-pieces. Not any more.

Rice may no longer be Arteta's lighthouse but he continues to find new ways to lead Arsenal to glory.