‘A huge impact’: Pundit thinks 24-year-old is going to be massive for Arsenal this season

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Michael Owen believes that Declan Rice is going to have a huge impact at Arsenal during the coming season, insisting that he is going to make a massive difference to the Gunners.

Owen was speaking to the Premier League website as Mikel Arteta’s men look to go one step further this term after pushing Manchester City in the title race last year.

Of course, Arsenal have been the pace-setters in the transfer market this summer. They have signed the likes of Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber. But obviously their marquee bit of business was to bring Declan Rice to the Emirates.

Arsenal broke their transfer record to sign the England international. So there is going to be plenty of pressure on the 24-year-old to step up and justify the record spend.

Owen backs Rice to have a massive impact at Arsenal

But Michael Owen believes that Rice is more than capable of living up to expectations with Arsenal as he backed the former West Ham captain to be the signing of the season.

“Declan Rice will make a huge impact, and Andre Onana could be a brilliant signing for Man Utd. I’m going to say Rice though. He’s going to make a massive difference to Arsenal this season,” he told the Premier League website.

It is still not entirely clear where Mikel Arteta intends to use Rice. He is someone who can play as a holding midfielder or as more of a number eight.

He started as a defensive player for the Hammers. But as time went on, he started to show that he was very capable of getting forward and making an impact in the final third.

Arsenal have so many versatile players in their ranks. So Arteta could easily use Rice in a couple of ways for the Gunners this season.

It will be interesting to see where Arteta sees Rice realising his full potential as he approaches the peak years of his career.