I’m penning this column as I fly again to London from Madrid and I’m truthfully discovering it powerful to sum up precisely how I’m feeling after final night time’s occasions within the Bernabeu.
It simply doesn’t get any greater than what Arsenal did on the house of the 15-time European champions. They got here of age in entrance of our eyes. It was simply very, very particular to witness.
Declan Rice was phenomenal over the 2 legs.
That was nearly as good a 180 minute efficiency as you will note from a participant on the largest stage.
Clearly he obtained loads of reward after his free-kicks within the first leg, and rightly so, however the efficiency he produced on the Bernabeu was nearly as good because it will get.
He was a colossus within the coronary heart of midfield. I don’t suppose there was a single blade of grass on that pitch that he didn’t cowl.
It was a tireless show. A efficiency for the ages on the largest of phases from Arsenal’s £105 million man.
It didn’t matter who he was up in opposition to, no-one might get close to him.
He was simply all over the place, from breaking apart Madrid assaults at one finish to driving Arsenal ahead on the different.
You possibly can’t actually single one factor out in relation to his efficiency and that’s what makes it so particular. It simply encapsulated every part that you simply want or need from a midfielder.
The right all spherical show.
Jude Bellingham couldn’t deal with Declan Rice – and it confirmed
You might see how pissed off Jude Bellingham was by all of it. Like all the perfect gamers, Bellingham clearly has an ego, you may see that by the best way he performs and to be truthful it’s that vanity that sees him stand out from most different gamers. He feeds off it.
However his ego was clearly bruised by the best way Rice monstered him over the 2 legs.
There was just one England star midfielder on the pitch on the Emirates and on the Bernabeu and it actually wasn’t Bellingham.
It was a tricky begin to the season for Rice. Like most gamers who had been on the Euros and gone deep into the competitors he struggled to actually hit his high type over the opening months of the marketing campaign.
However he’s there now and he has been for the previous couple of months.
Only a few massive cash signings reside as much as their worth tags. You simply have to have a look at the largest transfers in soccer historical past to see that.
The worth tags weigh closely on most, but it surely doesn’t on Rice.
“Declan Rice, we obtained him half worth” is the track that the Arsenal followers sing. It’s very exhausting to argue in opposition to that.
