Priceless Rice joins the elite with Madrid masterclass

"We got him half price," sing the Arsenal fans about Declan Rice, their £105m bargain. They might just have a point. Rice's performances against Real Madrid have confirmed his place among the elite.

"He has been decisive in the tie," said his manager, Mikel Arteta, after the midfielder's standout role in Arsenal's impressive Champions League quarter-final triumph.

It was his fantastic free-kicks last week at the Emirates which set Arsenal on their way to the final four. It was his leadership which saw them navigate the intensity of the Bernabeu on Wednesday.

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The past week will go down as a coming-of-age moment for the 26-year-old. His talent, drive and authority on the pitch have long been celebrated - hence the huge fee Arsenal paid West Ham for him in 2023. But his all-round game has gone to another level since that switch and appears to still be on a rapid rise.

"I knew when I signed this club was on an upward trajectory," Rice said after his central role in the 5-1 aggregate win. Arsenal's decision-makers rightly thought the same way about him.

"This club is going to do some special things over the next few years," added the man who will be at the heart of that success to come.

With the hype of a Remontada fired up by all connected to Real Madrid, Arsenal faced a huge test of character in the Spanish capital. Rice stood up to the challenge.

He had the most touches of any Arsenal player. The most accurate passes. The most interceptions. The joint-most tackles. The joint-most chances created.

This was the do-it-all midfielder doing it from box-to-box on the big stage.

His running battle with Jude Bellingham was fierce, fiery and perhaps vital to the contest as a whole. The two England powerhouses piled into their head-to-head in the middle of the Bernabeu.

The scrap took them to the sidelines, where at one point they tangled and looked like they might square up. Instead, they turned away, ready to go again. Two gladiators at the home of the Galacticos. Not long after, Rice was chasing down Bellingham in the Arsenal box and sliding in - precision amid the chaos of this clash.

The sight of Rice breaking through midfield with the ball at his feet is becoming a familiar one. It was his drive that led to Arsenal's goal in the Premier League at the weekend. Kylian Mbappe twisted an ankle trying to stop a similar surge. As Real Madrid found out, this is a player hard to hold down.

Of course, those two had met in a key moment earlier in the game, when Mbappe went down tamely as Rice marked him from a free-kick. There was panic and disbelief on Rice's face as he protested his innocence. A VAR check eventually led to a rightful reprieve. But it was a reminder Arsenal had to be street-smart against the title holders.

When Thomas Partey fell into the trap late in the game, shoving wind-up merchant Antonio Rudiger and earning a yellow which will see him suspended for the first leg of the semi, Rice barked at his midfield colleague to sharpen up. It was a demonstration of the demands he puts on those around him.

It's not just what Rice does in or out of possession. The intangibles increase his value to this group. Arteta praised the tone he'd set around the camp throughout the build-up and in the heat of the moment. He is Arsenal's standard-setter.

"He lifted the team in many moments and turned the game in our favour, and that's what you need, players to step up and have a big contribution," said his head coach.

How much is a player who can do that worth? Priceless.