Declan Rice seen pushing £45m Arsenal player around vs Crystal Palace

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Arsenal star Declan Rice was not afraid to tell new teammate Thomas Partey where he should be playing against Crystal Palace yesterday.

Sam Matterface and Danny Murphy were commentating on last night’s match against Crystal Palace and noticed something the England international was doing.

It was a far-from-easy victory for Mikel Arteta’s side yesterday.

Crystal Palace are always a tough team to break down and Roy Hodgson has made them even more defensively solid.

In the end, Arsenal had to take advantage of a slight lapse in concentration to score the only goal of the game.

Eddie Nketiah reacted fastest to a quick free-kick before beating Sam Johnstone to the ball and being brought down.

Martin Odegaard dispatched the penalty and despite Takehiro Tomiyasu’s red card, Arsenal saw out the game expertly.

Mikel Arteta selected several players outside of their preferred positions.

Thomas Partey once again started at right-back against Crystal Palace and needed Declan Rice to tell him what to do at times.

Rice is showing his leadership credentials at the club despite only being at the club for a month.

It’s exactly what Arteta would have expected from the 24-year-old when he signed him.

Rice seen pushing Partey around against Palace

In the opening minutes of the contest, commentator Sam Matterface said: “Fascinating there is the ball went back to [William] Saliba from Kai Havertz who tricked his way through a couple of players and gave it back to Saliba.

“Declan Rice moved into a sort of left centre-half position then told Thomas Partey to come more centrally to receive the ball.

“He was prodding and pushing his teammate and he’s quite vocal there in the middle is Declan Rice.

“He’s not the captain that job is for [Martin] Odegaard but he’s definitely a leader I think.”

The £45m Ghanaian’s versatility has come in handy during his time at Arsenal, especially in light of Jurrien Timber’s serious injury.

There were questions about whether Rice and Partey could play together but few would have expected them to line up in the positions they did against Crystal Palace.

Any suggestion that Arsenal will sell Partey this summer is likely to be dispelled now.

He’s still an important cog in this Arsenal side even if Arteta did put him in an unfamiliar role once again.