Mikel Arteta Defends Declan Rice Amid Criticism of Workload
Mikel Arteta did not so much bat away the criticism as laugh at it.
Suggestions that Arsenal are running Declan Rice into the ground were put to him, with the midfielder again at the centre of the conversation after another relentless start to a season. Arteta’s answer was instant and emphatic.
“Concerns?” he snapped back. “The only player, the only player in this squad that for two games in the Carabao Cup has been left out of the squad. At home with two days off. That’s my concern.
“It’s not true. We are really looking after him more than any other season. The way he’s training and all the load. That’s it.”
Rice has barely paused for breath since August. After a 69-game marathon for club and country last term, he has gone straight back to the coalface. He has started all nine of Arsenal’s Premier League fixtures and completed the full 90 minutes in four of the last five.
In midweek, when Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori were rotated out of the starting XI against Slavia Prague, Rice stayed in. He stayed on, too, despite looking visibly drained in the second half. No early hook. No gentle easing off the throttle. Just another full shift, then straight into England duty after missing the previous international camp for load management reasons.
To outsiders, that workload looks punishing. To Arteta, it is the reality of life at a club chasing major honours with an elite midfielder at its core.
“Here are the demands of this football club and you have a player like him,” the Arsenal manager said. “Not only him because there are many others that have even less time. That’s it.
“That has to be the mindset. If you start to put other things in your brain, damage. Erase them, get them in the bin and just focus on what you have to do.”
No space, then, for a narrative of fatigue or overuse. Not in Arteta’s dressing room.
The same message stretches beyond Rice. Arsenal’s schedule has been punishingly lopsided: 15 games played this season, only five of them at home. In the last week alone they have bounced from Fleetwood to Liverpool to Prague, a run that would test any squad’s legs and concentration.
Arteta refuses to indulge any complaints.
“No challenge,” he said, almost dismissively. “It’s all a pleasure. I heard them tell me: ‘you guys fly with private jets and good buses and good food’. It’s beautiful. We have done it. It was what we had ahead of us, it was another challenge.
“Because normally you don’t play four away games in a row or three away games in a row. And you don’t play Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday – very strange.
“We have done it a few times and we have to do it tomorrow again. We are buzzing.”
The “buzzing” includes Rice. The England international has become the metronome and the muscle of this Arsenal side, the player Arteta leans on when the schedule twists and tightens. The numbers are heavy, the optics worrying for some, but the manager is adamant: the club are monitoring him “more than any other season”, and the demands that come with his status are non-negotiable.
Hull’s visit to north London on Saturday finally brings Arsenal back to home soil, a brief pause in the travel chaos and a chance to lean once more on the comfort of the Emirates. Rice will be central again, if selected, carrying the load Arteta believes defines players at his level.
The minutes are mounting. So are the expectations. Arteta has made it clear which one he is more interested in.
