Declan Rice Named Arsenal's Player of the Season Again

Declan Rice arrived in north London to change games. He’s now changing the club’s history.

For the second straight season, the midfielder has been named Arsenal’s men’s Player of the Season, taking 44% of the vote after a campaign that dragged the Premier League trophy back to north London for the first time in 22 years and carried the club to only the second Champions League final in its history.

David Raya finished second in the poll, Gabriel third. But this was Rice’s award, and everyone inside the Emirates has known it for months.

Joining elite company

Back-to-back Player of the Season winners at Arsenal are rare. The list is short and heavy with icons: Liam Brady, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard.

Now it includes Declan Rice.

He had already come close in his debut campaign, finishing runner-up in the 2023/24 voting. Since then, he has simply taken over. Two seasons, two trophies bearing his name, and a body of work that looks less like a purple patch and more like the foundation of a legacy.

The heartbeat and the metronome

Rice has been everything Mikel Arteta could have asked for and then a little more. The heartbeat of the midfield, yes, but also the metronome, the shield and, at times, the spear.

He has shifted seamlessly between anchoring in front of the back four and driving on behind the front line, dictating where Arsenal squeeze, where they sit, when they suffocate and when they strike. Set pieces, once a weakness, became a weapon with Rice at the centre of so many routines.

Nine assists in all competitions underline his growing influence in the final third. Five goals add another layer, none more important than his brace in the pivotal January win over Bournemouth, a night when the title push stopped being a dream and started to feel inevitable.

Numbers that tell the story

If the eye test screamed “indispensable,” the numbers only shouted louder.

No Arsenal player created more chances than Rice’s 96. Nobody won the ball back more often than his 239 recoveries. Nobody made more tackles than his 91. In a squad packed with technicians and match-winners, he was the constant.

He also outlasted everyone. No outfielder logged more minutes than his 4,456 across 55 appearances, a staggering workload that means he has now been selected for over 50 games in each of his three seasons as a Gunner. When Arsenal played, Rice played. Simple as that.

Recognition beyond north London

The performances didn’t just resonate with Arsenal supporters. Europe took notice.

Rice earned a place in the Champions League Team of the Season, a nod to his authority on the continent’s biggest stage. Domestically, he found his name on the shortlists for both the Premier League and PFA Player of the Season awards, a reflection of how central he has become to the narrative of English football.

And his year isn’t done. Rice is currently with England at the 2026 World Cup, carrying club form into the international arena and chasing yet more honours in the coming weeks.

Arsenal’s fans have already delivered their verdict. The rest of the game is catching up.