In the last CannonStats mailbag, there was a question about Declan Rice’s role for Arsenal and how it has changed from his time at West Ham, and why he wasn’t currently being used as a “6” with Arsenal right now.
It was a good question and it was nice to take a quick look at how that changed but one part of my answer has lead to further discussion.
We will find out more the answer to [who is first choice DM] as the season goes on and the rest of the midfield gets healthy but I think the answer is that because Arsenal have had injuries to the other options further up the field and because Rice is a very good player, he is capable of playing in those spots…
When Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard are healthy, and available Rice will return to playing deeper in the games where all three of them play together and this is the first choice three midfielders but with options for rotation.
My assumption that Rice and Merino are the first choice along with Martin Odegaard got some push back where not everyone shares this opinion. This is the consensus among people who follow me according to the poll that I did but there is a healthy minority that still see Thomas Partey as the first choice in that role.
It is certainly possible that these people are correct and that I am wrong; with Mikel Arteta continuing to pick Thomas Partey as the starting DM when he his fit enough to play.
At this stage of the season, due to injuries to Merino and then Odegaard we have yet to see Arsenal with these players available for a game to have the option to be picked. We still must wait a few weeks to have that opportunity with Odegaard working his way back to full fitness.
One of the main things that proponents of Partey as DM have made is that while he may not have the legs that he used to have, he still is a superior passer and can do things on the ball that Rice doesn’t right now.
It’s intriguing to consider whether the claim on his passing superiority is supported by the video and statistics, so let’s go through what we have for the players.
Partey vs Rice – Passing Metrics
As a first step, I have adapted my radar and distribution charts and focused them rather than on the overall metrics for passing, instead looking at just ones that are focused on passing.
To start I took the performances from 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons for both players. Partey has not played as much during this time, but I would be reluctant to go further back because I think that he has been going through decline with age and injuries knocking him down from his prime production. There is a good argument that this might be his level now and the player that we saw previously is no longer here.
What this shows is that on basically every metric, Rice has performed better and, in the ones where he doesn’t have an advantage the difference between the two players is marginal.
