With goalscorers, the fond imagination is of a one-man team, that because Kane or Haaland's name is on the scoresheet it was all their own work. Rice is never going to get that. It always needs a Gabriel or Jurrien Timber in the penalty box to elevate his contribution. A water carrier -- as Eric Cantona disparagingly referred to Didier Deschamps' role in the great France team -- rarely gets the credit he deserves. At least until injured, anyway. Rodri did last season, but only when he couldn't play and Manchester City fell apart. The same with Claude Makelele, whose absence turned Real Madrid from galácticos to earthbound also-rans.

Yet Rice is no water-carrier, anymore. His set-piece delivery created Arsenal's first goal at Burnley on Saturday, his head scored the other. If the 26-year-old has come late to being an attacking force it is because at West Ham United too many fires needed putting out for him to have the necessary freedom. If a midfielder was going to get into the penalty area it was Tomas Soucek, to meet a set piece.

So Rice's transformation under Mikel Arteta is game-changing. For him, for the club, maybe even for England, too. At the 2024 European Championships, with Gareth Southgate trying to fit in Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and, at first, Trent Alexander-Arnold in a creative midfield role, there was no position for Rice to occupy beyond defensive guard. Even when Kobbie Mainoo was introduced, he could hardly go marauding and leave a teenager to run the house.

This is different. The emergence of Elliott Anderson -- albeit untried against any international opponent of substance -- and Rice's performances for Arsenal suggest a player that should not be limited to sentry duty. The fulcrum of a team that are now dominating the title race, on the brink of equalling a club record for defensive impregnability that has stood since 1903, Rice is nothing less than the most important player in English football at the moment. His contribution in all areas of the pitch, not least as a set-piece specialist, make him as essential for England as Kane.

Rice's numbers at Burnley on Saturday were extraordinary. First for touches (94), for passes played into the opposition box (seven), for crosses (six), for tackles (five), for interceptions (three), for duels won (nine), for possession won (nine) and for total carry distance (275.8 metres). It was a complete midfield performance. And, yes, it was Burnley. Yet Liverpool needed a second-half stoppage-time penalty from Mohamed Salah to win there in September, while Manchester United could only beat them the same way two weeks before at Old Trafford. Burnley are cussed this season. With Rice in control, Arsenal saw them off easily.

There is a lot of revisionism about Rice's worth now. Few thought him capable of commanding his present status when he left West Ham. Gary Neville priced him at £60million; Eni Aluko claimed City were not truly serious about joining the bidding, and only entered as a favour from Guardiola to Arteta, trying to spook the Arsenal board into getting the deal done. As for Arsenal's initial offer, it was £80million amortised over six years, at £13.3million per season. The deal increased, with a better price agreed, around the time rumours began circulating that West Ham were considering reporting Arsenal to the Premier League, so open was their courtship of a contracted player. Rice has proven every single doubt about his ability wrong. If £105million seems erroneous now, it's because his contribution to Arsenal has put another £50million on that.

"When we get in the box, we believe," said Gabriel after the recent win over Atletico Madrid. "And Declan Rice is unbelievable." He was talking about the latest development, Rice's emergence as the best left-sided corner taker in the country. If that sounds rather niche, there is a reason. Rice does not take them from the right where duties fall largely to Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. So for Rice to be taking roughly half of Arsenal's dead balls and still having by far the most set-piece assists of any Premier League player since January 2024 shows the unerring accuracy of his delivery.

He got the job by accident, via a mid-winter break in Dubai and Arsenal's injury list. Rice had always been regarded as a player who was of most use inside the box when receiving free kicks. Out of necessity, during warm-weather training, he began working on taking them. Arteta was struck by his consistency and accuracy given such a repetitive task. He was machine-like. Then he asked him to work with Nicolas Jover, the club's set-piece specialist. A star was born. Now, Rice is just two off David Beckham's total of 13 league assists from set pieces for Manchester United; yet while he has been taking them for Arsenal for 62 league matches, Beckham had 265 for United.

And some of this can be put down to his targets. Arsenal's entire back line are prolific winners of the ball in the air. There is not a free kick or corner taker in the world who would not choose to be aiming for Gabriel each time the ball is at his feet. Yet it's more than that. Rice has also created three goals in three games for England, too, with an entirely different group of team-mates.

It is not true to say that anyone would have his record, given the same opportunity. Arsenal are outstanding at set pieces. Yet Rice's inswinger in particular has made them more so, to the extent the fans now celebrate corners as if a penalty has been awarded. The comparison is often made between Rice and Moisés Caicedo of Chelsea, but Caicedo hasn't got that power. Neither did Rodri. Rice is a unique talent right now. If the season continues on this trajectory, Haaland may have a team named after him, but Rice will be the Footballer of the Year.