Declan Rice: Mikel Arteta turned me into a complete midfielder

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has spoken about how working under manager Mikel Arteta has changed him as a player.

"Arteta has turned me into a more complete midfielder. Now I feel like I can do a bit of everything. I've heard Steven Gerrard describe himself in a similar way - as a player who can do everything in the middle of the park. I think I'm similar. I can play in attack and defence. If I need to sit back and help with defence, I can do that. If I need to push forward and join the attack, I can do that too.

I always want to be active and show my character and strengths. I think Arteta has helped me to bring these out over the past few years. In one of our early meetings, he called me the 'heartbeat of Arsenal'. I'd never heard anything like that before. He says things that you wouldn't normally think of. That's why it was so memorable for me," Rice said, as quoted by the UEFA website.