People voting Rice over Partey clearly don’t watch the games. Rice has been playing 8 with either Partey or Jorginho at 6 depending on Partey’s fitness.
Also, based on ‘since 2010’ there is no doubt that Partey is the best CDM we have had. No one even comes close apart from Rice who hasn’t been playing 6 and has been at the club for less than 4 months.
Partey is easily the best CDM we have had since Vieira and Gilberto Silva. Even then Vieira was more of a box-to-box 8/6 hybrid.
Patrick Viera is the answer here. That’s where he played when we were defending and he was incredibly effective.
The poll is from 2010 till date
Thomas Vermaelen
Only one answer
Rice has played the 6 how many times for us? He’s been deployed WITH Jorginho and WITH Thomas a bit of the time. Can’t believe he’s getting that many votes but I also can believe it lol
Coquelin. Underrated af.
Granit Xhaka (2016-2023)
Please add him to the CM pile cause he should be in this team but not as a dm
Alex Song (2010-2012)
How is prime song getting such low votes
Prime Song was good but he wasn’t as good as other options. Song was at his best in 11/12 when he had RVP to supply then he quietly left that summer afterwards to Barca. Don’t remember him being that influential in 10/11…
There are basically 2 Songs:
- 2008 to 2011 Song who played a more defensive role with Fabregas in front of him
- 2012 Song who played a more advanced role after Fabregas left
The latter one being more widely remembered because of the linkup with Van Persie, but the former being far more effective defensively. A lot of Arsenal fans softened the blow of losing Song that summer by going on about his defensive frailties, but those were really only an issue in his final season because of him trying to replace Fabregas’ offensive contribution.
because ‘prime song’ is one of the most brainless players we’ve ever had, yeah he played a couple of nice passes, but it doesn’t make up for the times we would concede goals because he would go charging up the field or completely forget to pick up his man, guy cost us a fair few games
the 3-3 at home to norwich is a great example of the type of player he was, played an insane pass to rvp for the second goal, completely switched off defensively for at least 2 of the norwich goals
Prime song would fit as a perfect 8, but he was a liability as a CDM
Prime Song was a CM. Arteta was the holding midfielder for most of that season.
Lofted Song balls to Van Persie is the missing ingredient from 2013/14, firmly believe we’d have won the league with them two still around.
Loved that combo… RVP vs Everton and Liverpool with those lofted balls from Song… Two fantastic goals
Lucas Torreira (2018-2020)
Declan Rice (2022-present)
Rice has already shown himself to be better than peak Partey for me after 17 starts. tl;dr we haven’t had a ball winner as good as Rice since Viera and we need this steel in our midfield for the other two more creative midfielders to flourish. Partey is only better than Rice at line splitting passes (passing progression) or being press-resistant - these are two qualities the other two midfielders will have in spades (think Ozil/Fabregas/Odegaard/Ramsey/Cazorla/Wilshere).
Purely going off of current Rice and peak Partey:
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Defending: Rice is clear. He won possession more times than any player last season, and the numbers have only gotten BETTER this year. He gets dribbled past less, covers more ground and is more athletic than Partey. I don’t think we’ve had a ball winner this good since Viera. The counter attacks that we get from him winning the ball is game changing - think Saka’s goal against Sevilla.
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Passing: Partey is better at line splitting passes and progressive passing, but is more error prone. Rice hardly gives the ball away and so far seems to have a better weight of pass and can hit a pinged pass better too.
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Dribbling/Press-resistance: Rice is better at driving forward with the ball, but Partey is definitely better at beating the press and turning his man, but can sometimes get caught out too. Ex: Rice won the ball from Partey last season close to our box, leading to Gabriel giving away a penalty. Not entirely his fault, but 2 crucial points missed.
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Shooting: Neither player has scored many goals over their career, but Rice has shown he has the more consistent shooting ability and has already scored two very important goals. Remember when Partey shooting to row Z was a meme?
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Durability: Hugely important, but imo it’s not a fair comparison to include injury record when comparing the two because Partey is 30 and we’ve seen almost all of his career whereas Rice is only 24. Back at Atletico, Partey barely missed any games - just like Rice so far. Crossing my fingers here for Rice.
And a 24 year old Rice will only get better.
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Too early but he’s been MOTM nearly every game he’s played (or at least in the top 3)
He hasn’t done enough to earn the spot over Partey
Rice isn’t even playing DM, Jorginho is…
and when jorginho isnt playing guess who’s playing dm
Rice played as dm more than 8 on arsenal
He will be in a few years time but we only have seen him for less than half a year with us…
But the way things are going - he’s going to be worth every pound we paid for him
Rice only option.
I don’t need to wait a year to know Rice is better than Partey. He should be clear
So dire I’ll go with Rice. Technically it should be Partey but I’d rather not acknowledge his existence
Mvila
No other correct answer
With Higuian up front. Really surprised Sebastien Frey wasn’t picked in nets.
That Wesley Sneijder January move was big for morale at the time
portion
🐐
No other answer.
Thomas Partey…
Might be a hot take but Santi Cazrola …
