‘The brain’…Graeme Souness says Arsenal have a top player in their ranks who can do two jobs at once

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Graeme Souness has been speaking about a number of England players in his latest column this week, including Arsenal’s Declan Rice.

Rice played for England last night as they comfortably saw off Malta at Wembley. The Arsenal man had a goal disallowed as well as he once again showed his class in the middle of the park.

Of course, the pressure has ramped up on Rice since he completed a £100m move to Arsenal in the summer. But so far, he is delivering and has become a key player for Mikel Arteta’s side.

And writing about Rice in The Mail, Souness has said that Rice is good enough to effectively cover two positions for England in midfield.

Souness praises Declan Rice

Writing in The Mail, Souness delivered his positive verdict on the Arsenal midfielder.

“This comes back to Southgate not needing to play two holding midfielders. Declan Rice is most definitely good enough to do that job on his own. He has the athleticism and the brain to sense and eliminate threats,” Souness said.

“Get another attacking player in there. They have been lacking creativity at times and the best creative player in English football has been, for a number of years, James Maddison.”

Rice has definitely taken to life at Arsenal with ease and is already impressing a number of fellow players and pundits.

William Saliba has lauded Rice for his courage, while Rio Ferdinand has suggested Rice is now even more important than Bukayo Saka for the Gunners.

Certainly, Rice has shown he has been worth the money so far for Arsenal and his form for England shows just how good he can be as well.

With the Three Lions one of the favourites to win the Euros next summer, a player like Rice will be crucial in achieving that goal.