'You are not the lighthouse anymore' – Arteta reveals Rice's stunning evolution into Arsenal's chief creator

Mikel Arteta privately told Declan Rice before the new season that he is "not the lighthouse anymore" — and the Arsenal midfielder is spending this campaign proving it.

Coming into the new campaign, the Arsenal manager held a private conversation with Rice about his role on the pitch. What has followed is a reinvention of one of the Premier League's most dependable midfielders into its most prolific line-breaker, culminating in his starring display in the 2-1 win over Leeds.

"I went to him and I said: 'you are not the lighthouse anymore. You are something else,'" Arteta revealed after the Leeds victory, in which Rice set up Bruno Guimaraes' winner. "At the end of the season, I can tell you what [and] where I want to take him. But he's not the lighthouse anymore, he's something else and he needs to prove that on the pitch."

What did the 'lighthouse' tag mean?

Rice had been heralded as the 'lighthouse' of the Arsenal team ever since joining the club in 2023 — "somebody who brings a focal point, clarity and direction to everybody," as Arteta described the role last season. "You look at him and you know where to head."

The term carries prestige beyond the Emirates. Pep Guardiola famously used it to describe Rodri at Manchester City. "Guardiola tells me to be the coach on the field. He compares my position to that of a lighthouse," the Spaniard — now at Barcelona — once said. "Don't move, let everything revolve around you."

In practice, the label implied a traditional defensive midfield role built on off-the-ball influence. Those days, Arteta insists, are over.

Three open-play assists in six games

The most striking improvement has been Rice's passing ability in open play. In six league games this season, the Arsenal and England midfielder has three assists from open play — more than he managed in the entirety of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign.

Remarkably, all three have followed a similar pattern. Two were for Guimaraes, against Sunderland and Leeds: both were delivered from outside the box, both set up long-range goals, and both put Arsenal in front during sticky situations. The other was a quick ball through the lines for Kai Havertz's equaliser against Chelsea — again generating space for a strike from outside the box, and again digging Arsenal out of a tricky hole.

The numbers behind the shift

Those moments are part of a wider picture of Rice going up a level in possession, with a dramatic rise in his attacking influence on the ball:

• Final-third entries are up 25 per cent on last season, and double the level of the 2024/25 campaign.
• Line-breaking passes have nearly doubled — Rice now makes more than any other Premier League player.
• Passes in the final third are far more frequent than last season.
• Backwards passes are down by 50 per cent.

For a player often criticised in the past for passing sideways and backwards too often in open play, this is a head-on answer to the doubters — his forward passing has risen sharply even as his backwards numbers have halved.

A new position at the base of the midfield

The drop in backwards passing partly reflects a positional change. Rice now sits more at the base of the Arsenal midfield, allowing Myles Lewis-Skelly and Guimaraes to have a greater effect going forward — a stark contrast to the 'left eight' role he used to occupy.

Arteta's structural reinvention has been well documented. A BBC Sport tactical analysis published on 9 October described an 'Arsenal 2.0' in-possession shape of 3-1-6, with Rice at times dropping into a back three alongside Ezri Konsa and Gabriel Magalhaes and Lewis-Skelly acting as the single pivot — a system credited with underpinning the club's perfect start to the season, while carrying risks that surfaced in a 3-0 defeat at Brighton.

The old Rice still exists

Crucially, this is addition rather than replacement. There are still moments — such as Rice's backheel assist for Guimaraes' winner against Leeds — where he impacts the penalty area directly. He still makes tactically fascinating runs forward to create chaos, still carries the ball on lung-bursting drives as in previous seasons, and remains a set-piece threat from corners.

The new-look Rice can crash the penalty box but also sit in front of the back four. He is effective in dead-ball and open-play scenarios alike.

An Arsenal evolving with him

Rice is summing up a slightly different Arsenal. Many wanted a new type of team from the efficient, defensive, set-piece-influenced side that won the Premier League last season — and this version is delivering. Like Rice's assist numbers, all of Arsenal's goals this term have come from open play; they have not scored from a set piece since March.

Arsenal are evolving. Rice, at the heart of the team, is evolving with them — and the club is moving to secure that evolution. Sky Sports reported on 23 September that Rice was prepared to commit his long-term future to Arsenal, with a contract extension running to at least 2031 under discussion alongside a new deal for Arteta himself.

What next

Next up for Rice and his new role is a Super Sunday trip to Nottingham Forest, live on Sky Sports Premier League with kick-off at 4.30pm.