Football writer Sam Cunningham takes a closer look at how Declan Rice came to excel with Arsenal and England, via some formative years at West Ham United, after being released by Sunday's opponents Chelsea at the age of 14.
Arsene Wenger had only been watching for 20 minutes when he picked out the young centre-back playing two years above his age group.
West Ham Under-18s were playing at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground against their north London counterparts when Wenger, the Arsenal manager at the time, made a surprise appearance to watch the second half.
"He picked Dec out and said, 'He's exceptional,'" recalls Mark Phillips, then in charge of West Ham's U18s.
Even more miraculously, Rice had been playing as a midfielder until shortly before that when Phillips and coach Steve Potts tried him at centre-back in a pre-season game against Colchester United.
Afterwards, Rice told them he liked it there, that he could see the whole game in front of him. "He had a season playing centre-back for us," Phillips said. "He was outstanding. He read everything."
It just goes to show the unusual path that footballers take to reach the top. Rice's route was full of obstacles and challenges.
Released by Chelsea
Arguably the greatest of those challenges came when Rice was released by Chelsea when aged 14.
His technical ability was never in question, but, having arrived at the west London club as a tiny seven-year-old, he went through a growth spurt and took time to adapt to his body.
"My running pattern was really weird," he later told Gary Neville, the former England and Manchester United defender. Rice explained it meant he "couldn’t keep up with the other kids."
"He went through a spell similar to Rio Ferdinand, when he became very leggy and gangly," Phillips said.
But when Rice was allowed to leave, it still came as a shock to many, including John Terry, at the time one of the word’s leading centre-backs for Chelsea and England. Terry called Rice, and while the teenager sat on his bed next to his dad, told the boy not to give up. How Rice responded left a lasting impression on those who know him well.
Steve Willmore was Rice's PE teacher when he attended Grey Court School from years seven to nine, and Rice was the star player in the school team.
At Rice's request, Willmore used to bring forward matches so Rice could play before his mum, Stephanie, picked him up with a tub of pasta to drive him to Chelsea training.
Declan Rice and Mason Mount as youngsters at Chelsea
Back then Rice was the box-to-box No 8 he would eventually become at Arsenal, but only after he dropped further back, then gravitated forward again.
"He had an unbelievable engine," Willmore said. "[He was good with his] left foot, right foot, he could head. He had the work rate. Loved to win. Great attitude. He was such a good lad. A great personality. Got on well with everyone.
"He was vocal on the pitch. A good captain who led by example. He wasn’t selfish. With any free-kick from outside the box, you’d say, 'Go put it in the top corner.' He had that ability. He scored goals in every game."
Willmore, who remains in contact with Rice today, recalls having conversations with him when Chelsea let him go and found a disappointed but determined teenager.
"He’s a prime example of someone who, when they receive devastating news, regroups, shows resilience and character, and works hard," Willmore said.
"I say this to a lot of the students: you’ll get knock-backs, but it’s how you respond. You’re going to have disappointments. We regularly talk about Declan.
"Look at him. You have to take it on the chin. It's about that character and resilience, how are you going to go again? It's such a key skill for young boys and girls growing up now."
Rice wasn’t short of offers after leaving Chelsea. He had a trial at Fulham, which was closer to home, but made the brave choice to join West Ham, move into club digs in Romford and leave his life behind to join another secondary school.
Rice 'set really high standards'
Phillips wasn’t initially sold on the idea of signing Rice for West Ham. He felt they had strong midfielders in his age group and questioned whether Rice would play. But, he says, head of recruitment Dave Hunt insisted.
And Rice was soon loved at West Ham. He was an "absolute character", Phillips said. "Although he was a joker and wanted to have a laugh, in training he always took it seriously. Always wanted to be the best player, always wanted his team to win in training. He set really high standards."
But Rice had to fight. When many of his team-mates were given scholarship contracts at 16 with pro contracts attached, Rice was handed only a straight scholarship deal. "I think that made him really determined," Phillips says. "He thought 'I’ll show you'. And he went with it.
"They say that in the road to becoming a footballer, you need to have roadblocks and you have to get round them, and Dec’s definitely had that. That’s what made him."
There are also the breaks, the opportunities, and Rice’s came when he played in an international tournament in Belgium where friends of Slaven Bilic, the West Ham boss at the time, watched him have a flawless tournament.
When Bilic invited him to first-team training, Phillips told Rice not to be too flash, but not to be too quiet either. Rice struck the perfect balance.
Mark Noble, then a West Ham midfielder and currently the club's sporting director, recalls the first time he saw Rice in training playing as a centre-back, watching him intercept a pass, bring the ball out, then hit a diagonal ball with fade.
"It looked like it came so naturally to him," Noble wrote later in his autobiography, Boleyn Boy. "I realised we had a proper player on our hands and I took it upon myself to look after Dec.
"He didn’t talk much, but he was a great kid and he loved it when we bantered him. It already felt like he belonged."
There were still steep learning curves with sharp elbows.
In one of his early Premier League matches, Rice gave the ball away for a goal West Ham conceded against Newcastle United, in a 3-0 defeat in 2017, and Bilic substituted him at half-time.
Meanwhile, David Moyes, who would be the West Ham manager when Rice lifted the Europa Conference League trophy as captain, criticised Rice in his post-match press conference when he gifted Arsenal a goal in 2018.
Rice lifts the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy
"He knew he had a top player on his hands, but he wanted to make sure that Dec learnt from his mistakes," Noble wrote. "The Premier League is unforgiving."
Nonetheless, Noble detected no nerves when Manuel Pellegrini, during his spell as West Ham manager, moved Rice into midfield. Playing alongside Rice was, Noble thought, like having two midfielders in one.
Arsenal come calling
The skills that Rice had honed as a centre-back – his ability to read the game, to step in for interceptions and rarely have to go to ground for a tackle – served him well in midfield. Rice combined them with an array of other attributes that transformed him into a reported £105 million Arsenal signing and, possibly, a future Premier League title winner.
Rice (centre) signs for Arsenal flanked by Arteta and Edu
Before deciding to join the Gunners, Rice watched the Amazon All or Nothing: Arsenal documentary and knew he wanted to work with Mikel Arteta, the manager.
"With Mikel and how he works, the squad, how young everyone is, the energy around the club and also the challenge of getting Arsenal back to where they belong, that means a lot to me," Rice told Arsenal's official website in his first interview after signing for the club in July 2023.
"I know the fans really want that. For me as a player, I’ve come here really hungry to have more success and to spend my best years at this great club."
The only question remaining is how high can Rice go with the talent Wenger spotted all those years ago? There have been comparisons to Bobby Moore, the West Ham defender who captained England to the 1966 World Cup.
"Dec was captain at youth level," Phillips says. "He's a fantastic leader. Some of our staff used to say, in jest at the time, he’s going to be the future Bobby Moore, and maybe he is. You don’t know, do you?"