Beck-lan Rice! Arsenal's midfield lynchpin adds unlikely string to his bow with set-piece prowess - and England can benefit

Arsenal reportedly focused on drilling set-pieces during their January warm-weather training camp in Dubai. It's remarkable that that was seen as a priority in attack, given they had scored the joint-most goals in the Premier League from offensive set-pieces at the time (11), alongside Everton.

Since they returned to action, Rice has unexpectedly emerged as their first-choice corner and free-kick taker on the left, providing dangerous in-swinging deliveries with his right foot. Left-footed Bukayo Saka has continued as the taker on the other side.

Rice had taken just three corners in 20 games before Arsenal jetted off to Dubai, per the BBC. Since then, he has been charged with taking 12 in the space of four games - and those have remarkably yielded two assists.

The first of those came in the rout of Crystal Palace in their first game back, and his pair of contributions at the London Stadium mean Arsenal have raced ahead in terms of Premier League goals scored from set-plays (16), with five of those coming since the winter pause.

You might think that Rice would be seen as an asset and aerial threat from set-pieces, given his height. Indeed, he scored his first Arsenal goal from a corner against Manchester United and headed a late winner against Luton, albeit from a cross in open play.

However, Arsenal's tacticians have seen something in him and his role has now changed - with Arteta going as far to say that he is a bigger threat from outside the penalty area.

Speaking after the dismantling of West Ham, the manager said: "He had to focus on the task and what he had to deliver. Set-pieces were one of those because when we have certain players on the pitch, he is a better threat outside the box than inside the box."

Speaking to BBC 5 Live, Arteta added: "[He] has huge quality in his delivery and it's something we can maximise in relation to the players we have on the pitch, in the box and he delivered again."

Rice is one player who has evidently benefited significantly from working with renowned set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover.

The Frenchman - who is often seen prowling the touchline when Arsenal win a set-piece - arrived at the Emirates ahead of the 2021-22 season and initially made a huge impact defensively, with the Gunners remarkably not conceding a set-piece goal until April of that campaign. Now he seems to have struck a balance with attacking output, too, as Arteta's side mount a second-consecutive title challenge.

According to The Independent, Jover's sessions are short, with his routines developed bit by bit in the build-up to a match; first the taker is expected to get the delivery right, crossing to no-one, then the attackers are added, and finally the defenders.

Arsenal boast a tall squad, with the likes of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White and William Saliba all over six-foot tall, and Jover looks to exploit that, adopting 'confusion tactics' as multiple players act as moving parts in one overall manoeuvre, acting as a diversion.

Although Rice took set-pieces at West Ham with varying degrees of success, it's clear he's taken that element of his game to another level under Jover's tutelage in north London.

One subplot of Rice's dominant return to the London Stadium was that he completely outshone fellow England international James Ward-Prowse in the process, and he even stole his party trick.

Indeed, one pundit even drew a comparison between the two. "I think his [Rice's] delivery is as nice on the eye as maybe not David Beckham, but as nice on the eye as James Ward-Prowse. He seems to get it on the money every time. He seems to get so much whip on the ball," Andros Townsend told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Ward-Prowse - whom West Ham signed as a part-replacement for Rice in the summer - has always been a solid midfield operator, but the main reason he has found himself in and around the England squad in recent seasons is because of his aptitude from set-pieces, which is second to none.

The Southampton academy product is already in double figures for assists in all competitions this season, including one from a corner in the 2-0 victory at Arsenal in December.

However, Ward-Prowse's last England cap came in June 2022, and given he already finds himself on the fringes of Gareth Southgate's squad, his chances of being included in the group for the upcoming European Championship in Germany could be all but over amid Rice's emergence as a potential dead-ball specialist.

It will be interesting to see whether Southgate agrees with Arteta that Rice is a "better threat outside the box", with the opportunity to experiment in upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Brazil before Euro 2024 in Germany this summer.

Even without Ward-Prowse, England are blessed with a host of players who are adept over a dead ball. Kieran Trippier - who himself boasts 11 assists in another outstanding campaign - and Trent Alexander-Arnold have shared duties in recent camps, while Phil Foden, James Maddison and Cole Palmer have all had the responsibility at club level.

Of those names, though, Rice is arguably the only guaranteed starter for the Three Lions, so if Southgate wants consistency from set-plays he may well see fit to hand the role to his midfield dynamo.

Amid Rice's incredible debut season at the Emirates Stadium, this latest string to his bow begs the question: is there anything he can't do?!

With at least three months still to go in 2023-24, the marauding midfielder has already matched his combined goal and assist output for the whole of the two previous campaigns (nine), with Arteta & Co. seemingly unlocking another facet to his game.

Against his former club in arguably his finest display in red and white to date, Rice registered two assists in one match for the first time ever and ran the show as he maintained 93 percent pass accuracy and took 84 touches. His fine long-range strike to make it 6-0 barely told the half of it.

He is nailed on for his best-ever attacking season, and that hasn't come at the detriment of his elite defensive work in the Arsenal engine room.

If Arsenal were scouring for any minor flaws in his game, this new-found set-piece ability may well be the final piece of the jigsaw for a player who is now unquestionably complete despite having only just turned 25. This is Declan Rice's world, we're all just living in it.