Jamie O’Hara says 24-year-old Arsenal player simply wasn’t good enough vs Manchester City

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Jamie O’Hara has labelled Declan Rice’s performance for Arsenal in yesterday’s FA Community Shield as ‘bang average’.

Arsenal picked up their first piece of silverware of the new campaign as they overcame Manchester City on penalties yesterday.

Mikel Arteta opted for a midfield three of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, with Kai Havertz moving further forward to replace the injured Gabriel Jesus.

The Gunners looked set to fall to defeat at Wembley Stadium after Cole Palmer found the top corner with a well-taken finish in the 77th minute.

But Leandro Trossard came off the bench to find a last-minute equaliser and send the clash to penalties.

Rice made his competitive debut for Arsenal and was eventually replaced by Eddie Nketiah in the 81st minute as Arteta searched for an equaliser.

And it’s fair to say that O’Hara wasn’t impressed with the 24-year-old’s display.

O’Hara on Rice

Speaking on TalkSPORT, O’Hara was discussing Rice’s display with an Arsenal fan and claimed he barely noticed Rice was on the pitch.

“He comes off late in the game, what did you make of his performance? I’ll be honest, I didn’t even realise he was playing,” the former Tottenham midfielder said.

The Arsenal fan argued that Rice went slightly under the radar and actually put in a good performance in midfield. But O’Hara wasn’t convinced.

“No,” he responded. “I’ll tell you right now, I played centre-mid. If you go unnoticed, it means you’ve been bang average, that’s not good enough.”

Rice had a quiet afternoon as he played in a slightly more advanced role with Partey coming back into the side.

But the Englishman didn’t put a foot wrong on the day and he will need time to adjust to Arteta’s system.

Of course, Arsenal broke the British transfer record to sign Rice and his displays will likely come under massive scrutiny this season. 

Yet, Arteta will be happy with how the former West Ham skipper has settled in so far and it’s still early days in terms of his Arsenal career.