He’d make Rice truly elite: Arsenal are "expecting" to sign £51m star

While the Premier League season has rather petered out for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, the future remains bright for a football club that is still very much on the rise.

Of course, they will be disappointed at the way they fell behind Liverpool in the race for the title but their remarkable 3-0 win over Real Madrid last week sent a message around the continent that the Gunners are a mighty fine team, even when they aren’t at full strength.

Last week, Declan Rice’s free-kick heroics ensured that Arteta’s men head to the Bernabeu this week in pole position to seal a semi-final spot.

However, they managed to do so without Kai Havertz and Gabriel, only making the achievement even more incredible.

That result was one of the greatest the Emirates has ever been and new sporting director, Andrea Berta, certainly needs to build on that over the summer. It could have been just the message his various transfer targets needed.

Arsenal’s summer transfer plans

The biggest priority for Berta this summer will be strengthening the forward line.

Alexander Isak is the dream acquisition but reportedly valued at somewhere around £150m, it makes any deal pretty impossible to complete.

As a result, Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres could be the player they turn to with The Athletic’s David Ornstein reporting a few weeks ago that he is the leading target.

However, they may also strengthen in midfield with Ornstein providing the latest on their pursuit of Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi over the weekend.

Speaking on the Athletic podcast, he admitted that Arsenal are “expecting” to sign the Spanish midfielder in the summer, having done a lot of work on a possible transfer.

A move could cost in the region of £51m, the release clause in Zubimendi’s contract at La Real.

How Zubimendi would fit into Arsenal’s midfield

At the end of the season, Thomas Partey and Jorginho’s contracts will expire, hence Arsenal’s desire to sign a new midfielder.

Jorginho – now just a bit-part of the side – won’t be a huge miss on the field but it’s safe to say the Gunners may miss Partey a little bit more.

He’s proven his worth, particularly in recent weeks, delivering a stand-out performance against Real Madrid last Tuesday and scoring against Brentford on Saturday evening.

During that thrilling win over Carlo Ancelotti’s side, no midfielder completed their passes at a more successful rate than Partey’s 93.8%. Furthermore, only William Saliba on both sides completed more carries.

That said, in Zubimendi, they won’t be signing a replacement for Partey. He only ranks in the top 57% of midfielders in Europe’s big five leagues for progressive carries.

Instead, they would be replacing Jorginho’s role as a tempo-setter and conductor of play. Zubimendi ranks among the best 7% of midfielders in Europe for touches in the defensive penalty area and the top 16% for tackles in the attacking third, indicating that he likes to come short towards the defence but also that he likes to press high up.

As a result, this transfer is likely to mean that Rice’s days as an out-and-out holding midfield player are numbered. While that may have looked like a bad thing at the start of the season, the idea of placing Zubimendi alongside the club’s record signing is a salivating one.

Indeed, Rice has done a lot of his best work in the no.8 role this season, playing further forward and impacting games in the final third.

His attacking traits are improving all the time and that has been abundantly clear over the last week. Those two free-kicks against Madrid were a sign that his ball striking would be put to good use in a more advanced role while the way he galivanted forward for Partey’s goal against Brentford summed up why Arteta is keen to use him further forward.

Rice broke quickly from a Bees corner, beating one man and then surging into the opposition half like a racehorse, devastatingly darting towards goal and then playing the ball at exactly the right time.

That type of line-breaking carry would rarely be seen if he was playing in a holding role but the arrival of Zubimendi would give Rice the license he truly needs to establish himself as one of the game’s most elite midfielders.