‘He was absolutely perfect’: Pundit claims one Arsenal player was simply amazing vs Newcastle this weekend

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Pundit Robbie Mustoe has now been hailing the performance of Declan Rice for Arsenal against Newcastle United this weekend.

Mustoe was talking on ‘The 2 Robbies’ podcast and said that Mikel Arteta would surely duplicate Rice in his midfield.

The pundit thought the £105m midfielder had all the attributes to fulfil both the number six and number eight roles for Arsenal.

And Mustoe praised the energy Rice played with when trying to force Arsenal back into the tie on Saturday.

He said: “I think that’s going to be his role, Rob, I think that’s going to be his role, the Granit Xhaka slash, meant to be Kai Havertz role, the left side of those three in midfield.

“I think he’s so good, obviously, they wish they could have two Declan Rices, they want a number eight Declan and a number six Declan, because he can do both.

“But given that left side situation and how good he is getting forward, with the energy he’s got driving the ball forward, helping Jorginho defensively, who needs that help in midfield.

“He was absolutely perfect.”

Mustoe thinks Arteta needs to duplicate Rice in his Arsenal midfield

Of course, these comments do feed into the convincing narrative that Arsenal are still deeply missing Granit Xhaka.

Kai Havertz was seemingly intended for the role, but his best minutes in an Arsenal shirt have come elsewhere.

Moreover, with Rice deployed in an advanced role, that would leave the perfect position for Thomas Partey.

However, Partey’s absence right now shouldn’t come as a surprise given all of the games he’s missed due to injury in the past.

Arsenal are definitely missing something right now, and Mustoe is right to point out that Rice is doing the job of two players.

Perhaps Oleksandr Zinchenko could do a stellar job stepping into the number eight role mentioned by Mustoe.

Zinchenko did often play in such a position before dropping deeper at Manchester City.

And given Arsenal do now look more secure with Takehiro Tomiyasu at left-back, Zinchenko would be free to deliver his skill-set elsewhere.