To build his dream midfield, Mikel Arteta might ideally want two . One to mop up in front of the back four, one to break forward into the opposition box. A goal and assist in Saturday’s 3-0 home win against took Rice to 15 goal contributions in the during his debut season: seven scored, eight assists. Advertisement That figure takes him beyond , who recorded seven of each in the top flight last season before leaving for .
He needs to recognise as well certain situations earlier, in order to build that relationship and chemistry within the unit that he’s playing with — something that is still quite raw, especially with the amount of changes that we made on that left side this season. “All of this is going to contribute to his development, and hopefully we can see much more.