Lighthouses are fucking awesome so he has a lot to live up to there.
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His mental attributes are as important as his technical / physical qualities.
It is about presence, influence and leadership. He’s the sort of player who tries to set an example and who refuses to hide.
If there was one thing missing (other than depth lol) in the run-in last season, it was that sort of battling mentality.
The squad will be more hardened, more experienced this season anyway. That’s an organic development and made more acute from coming so close last season. Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli et al will all be stronger mentally.
But throw Rice into the mix too and we’ve really sought to address one of the key factors why we tailed off in our title challenge.
The more I think about it, the more I start to think that Rice’s main effect on the team will be in the intangibles. He’s not a better football player than Partey. So footballistically (thank you Arsène) he isn’t going to raise our level exponentially. But he will stabilise us in other ways, he’ll influence and impact how opponents behave against to us.
You don’t try and bully Henderson, you don’t try and bully Rodri, you don’t try and bully Kante. Rice is in that category of player who opponents take notice of. He’ll bully you the fuck back if you try it on.
Really is a massive signing and I get more excited about next season every time I stop to think about it.
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Nooooo they’re creepy. There is a reason they’re used as settings for horror films and thriller books.
That film is weird as fuck, too
Let’s just say you’re wrong and leave it at that. No reason for a time wasting back and forth here 
They’re like old abandoned fairgrounds, only scary in Scooby Doo.
Yeah, it seems to me like the club/Arteta identified that issue and took an immediate, bold step to rectify it.
They might not deserve much praise for identifying something so obvious, but compared to previous regimes/managers, they deserve credit for actually trying to do something about it right away. Fair to say they tried similar last year when bringing in players used to winning like Jesus and Zinchenko, the kind of experience we were lacking when we bottled top four that season, and we had a vastly improved season as a result (also due to other factors, to be fair to the other players, and Arteta, who excelled)
I think this sort of slightly intangible factor will be the best thing about signing Rice.
I’m really starting to feel like we’re winning something big in the next few years. Think we’re about to enter a period like Liverpool did a few years ago, even if I’m not feeling bullish enough to tip us to win both the league and the CL within a similar timeframe.
Not to get ahead of myself, but I think we could be better placed to sustain it over a longer period of years due to the age of our squad. We’ll inevitably lose some of these excellent young players I’m thinking of, because such is football, but right now I’d back us to replace them well.
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My local playground !? We grew up playing here with his uncle.
I think it’s absolutely possible to target the league and CL over the next five years. Yes, it would take a few things to break in our direction but it feels like we’re on the cusp of something really great.
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Gunnerblog said on his podcast that West Ham told City that they can try bidding but Rice was really keen on Arsenal.
Fabrizio said even of City matched the offer he still wanted to come here so their only hopes was outbidding us.
Arteta pull is unrivalled.
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Having Saka here also helps. Him and Rice seem to have struck up a good connection. Always laughing and joking when they’ve linked up during international duty
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Seems very close to Ramsdale too, which I’m not particularly surprised with. Similar characters.
We actually have a proper English core again. Feels like yesterday when we were lucky to have one player in the national team and Spurs were filling up a fourth or fifth of the squad with their players every single international break.
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no wonder England didn’t win anything
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Feels great seeing him in an Arsenal shirt. Can’t wait to see what presence he will bring to our entire team.
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Looking good in our hideous away shirt! Excited for next season and to see what he brings
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https://twitter.com/_DeclanRice/status/1682032511050985474
Respect Cobham, they raise them well. 
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How many minutes did he play in the end?
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That kit makes me angry
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