As his influence and stature have grown in recent years, Declan Rice has found himself placed in a familiar categorization of great English midfielders. In many ways, it is reasonable to view the Arsenal dynamo in the lineage of Bryan Robson, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham.

Just like them, he can be the Roy of the Rovers all-action type, winning a tackle at one end, sprinting up the field and slamming in a late winner. There is a reason his Arsenal teammates nickname him The Horse, why Mikel Arteta never seems to give him a night off: this is a guy who can go and go and go. And when he's on the field, he can do plenty of what his legendary predecessors did. He bends it like Beckham. He (far less frequently) crashes the box in Lampardian fashion. His tackling, fortunately for his opponents, is more Paul Ince than Paul Scholes.

All of these players were exceptional talents, at their peak worthy of consideration for the biggest individual prizes in the sport. Most of them were not, however, quite the do-it-all midfielders they were labeled as. That much was apparent at major tournaments when the English public craved nothing more than an Andrea Pirlo, a Luka Modric, a Rodri: a player whose passing could dictate the flow of the biggest games.

England -- and indeed at times last season Arsenal -- have needed that. In his pursuit to be the best midfielder on the planet, it would appear that Rice is intent on giving it to them. Probably. It is hard to be certain when all we know is that Arteta decided to announce that Rice was no longer a "lighthouse" but that the Arsenal world would have to wait until the end of the season for confirmation as to what structure his midfielder was now asked to embody.

Whatever it is, well, Rice is certainly lighting the way for his teammates. More frequently than ever before, the 27-year-old is finding himself at the start of Arsenal's buildup, the player who gets the rest of his team going. Among starters, no player is involved in more possessions than Rice. Unsurprisingly, then, he leads this team for touches per 90 Premier League minutes, his 87.5 putting him 13% ahead of second-placed Martin Odegaard. Passes attempted, completed and received too. In that true Rodri fashion, the game seems to flow through him. 

Of course, anyone can get passed the ball a lot, especially when they're dropping between the center backs to further involve themselves. What matters is what they do when they get the ball and this is where Rice's most remarkable development this season lies. He leads the Premier League in progressive passes with 124, and before you assume that is a function of him always being on the pitch, he has played a half of football less than joint-leader Jan Paul van Hecke. On a per-90 basis, Rice's 14.6 is about 6% more than anyone else in the division. The upswing in progression has come through carrying as well as passing. He might not lead the league on that particular metric, but top 10 is not to be sniffed at.

This is all the more notable for two reasons. First of all, in his first three seasons at the club, Rice was not particularly notable for ball progression, especially as a passer. In that time he hovered at around 8.5 progressive passes per 90, decent numbers for your average Premier League midfielder but unremarkable for a player of his standing. And that was no surprise. If there was a flaw in the game of the £105 million man when he arrived from West Ham, it was that he was not viewed as a great passer, particularly from deep. Ball-carrying, ball-winning, relentless energy: those were your Rice hallmarks. The guy who builds the attacks, less so.

It should be noted that this is a viewpoint the man himself might disagree with. "Being behind the ball as well, linking the play, being involved with all aspects for me is my best position," said Rice after his excellent display in last week's 1-0 win at Liverpool. "Whatever the manager decides, I'll do."

Then again, it is neither those more dynamic qualities nor the linking of play that has been the primary aspect that makes Rice great. What makes Rice great is what his manager termed his desperation to improve. Speaking ahead of Saturday's game against Hull, Arteta hailed "the mentality to go out and win football matches and to add another level to his game, another kind of threat and be much more unpredictable.

"We've been working a lot on that. He's desperate to improve every part of his game, and we need to do that while we maintain so many incredible things that he's already done, but he's on the right trajectory."

Crucially, Rice's development for this season has come in the way that Arsenal most needed. Their old ball-progression hub, William Saliba, has only just returned from a back injury. Too often last season the Gunners would run aground building their attacks and, when fit, Odegaard would go hunting for possession from the center backs. With Rice picking up the progression load, this season the proportion of Odegaard's touches in the defensive half has dropped, replaced by extra involvement in the final third.

Then again, it would be handy if Rice could help out in the final third too. For him to rank among the very best midfielders in the world, you'd ideally like him to excel in multiple metrics, much as Vitinha delivers goals with surprising frequency or Pedri ranks as one of the best midfielders in the game when it comes to getting the ball back as well as creating with it.

For Rice, that has been assists, his Premier League-leading quintet all coming from open play, highlights being the first-time backheel to tee up Bruno Guimaraes in the hard-fought win over Leeds and the overlapping cross from the right to Kai Havertz against Liverpool. The latter is part of another notable trend in Rice's season, that he is joining the talent overload on the Arsenal right to devastating effect. 

Compared to the touch map you see above, Rice spent far more of last season on the left-hand side of the pitch in something akin to the "left eight" role for which he was signed. The emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly as a starting option in central midfield changes that, shunting the England international into areas of the field where he can make late runs to the byline once Odegaard, Ben White and Bukayo Saka have given the defense twisted blood.

Once more, the stats show an uptick, with his expected assists at 0.24 per 90, comparable with the likes of Odegaard, Morgan Gibbs-White and Enzo Fernandez. Rice is creating more than ever despite having fewer touches in the attacking third per 90. This is a player remorselessly focused on improvement. His manager sees even more room for growth too.

"We cannot restrict his qualities and his capacities," said Arteta. "He can drop back, he can progress play. He can drop back, he can carry the ball. He can be incredible in transition. He can win duels. He can produce passes by arriving, by playing far, by crossing the ball left or right. It doesn't matter.

"He's got a lot to offer. His shooting ability from long range as well is something that we need to use more. He has the capacity to do it. There's still so much to gain."

If that is indeed true, is the Ballon d'Or a plausible path? Rodri and Modric have proven it is possible, but it takes something special indeed. Even the pre-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo age was not one where traditional central midfielders won the Ballon d'Or. As the great Englishmen of the turn of the century can attest, even when you are at the very peak of your powers, there is probably a Brazilian playmaker enchanting the masses in a way you can't.

Set the standards at best player in the world and Rice has a way to go. Perhaps not as far as you might immediately assume. Somewhat surprisingly, it is without the ball that Rodri looks superior: stronger in the duels, recovering possession more frequently, making more tackles and winning a higher proportion of them. As a starting point, it gives you a sense of just how dizzyingly high a standard peak Rodri set. It is doubtless a level that Rice aspires to and one where other margins are narrower.

In terms of progressive passing, Rodri's Ballon d'Or season at Manchester City saw him average about 10% more per 90. Scoring and assisting are similar too. Rodri ended that campaign with nine goals and eight assists. Presume Rice plays as many minutes this season as he did last and project out from his expected assists and expected goals and you end up with a player on three goals, 11 assists. Of course, what matters when it comes to individual prizes is often less the volume of output than when it is timed. A few more of those free kicks against Real Madrid wouldn't go amiss, though his shooting from dead balls might be one of the few aspects where he has atrophied.

Being dubbed the best player in the world is probably beyond Rice this season, though continue this trend of adding something new every season and who knows. Best midfielder in the world? It's between him, Pedri, the PSG trio and maybe a few others. Best player in the Premier League? Goals are the most valuable prize in football, so for that reason it's hard to argue against Erling Haaland. Were you to do so, you'd probably be arguing for Rice, though.

And if for now he loses those debates, it does not mean he won't win them in the future. After all, that desperation to improve has seen him turn an obvious weakness into one of his many strengths. Keep doing that and there might be even more to come from one of the best players in the game.