Declan Rice Wins Arsenal Player of the Season Again

For the second year running, Arsenal’s season has ended with the same, unmistakable verdict from the stands: this was Declan Rice’s team.

The midfielder has been voted the club’s men’s Player of the Season for 2025/26, claiming 44% of the supporters’ vote after a campaign that finally dragged the Premier League trophy back to north London for the first time in 22 years and carried Arsenal to only the second Champions League final in their history.

David Raya finished second in the poll, with Gabriel taking third, but the margin told its own story. When Arsenal needed control, when they needed bite, when they needed someone to drag them through a tricky spell, Rice was usually at the centre of it.

Joining an elite Arsenal club

This is not just another award for the mantelpiece. Rice becomes only the sixth player in Arsenal history to retain the club’s Player of the Season prize in consecutive years, stepping into a lineage that reads like a roll call of icons: Liam Brady, Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.

Those are the names that have defined eras. Rice is beginning to carve out his own.

He arrived as a record signing and, in his first season, finished runner-up in the 2023/24 voting. Since then, he has simply taken over, winning the award in back-to-back title pushes and proving that the fee, the expectation, the pressure, were not burdens but fuel.

The heartbeat and the metronome

Rice has been the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s midfield, but that barely covers it. Some nights he sat in front of the back four, screening, intercepting, smothering counter-attacks before they had the chance to breathe. On others he stepped higher, operating just behind the frontline, snapping into duels and driving Arsenal onto the front foot.

He did the ugly work and the glamorous stuff, often in the same move.

Set pieces became one of Arsenal’s sharpest weapons, and Rice was right in the thick of that too. His delivery and presence from dead balls were central to the title charge. Across all competitions he produced nine assists and added five goals of his own, including a brace in a pivotal win over Bournemouth in January that helped steady nerves and reinforce Arsenal’s grip on the race.

Those numbers only hint at the scale of his influence.

Dominating the details

Look a little deeper and the picture becomes even clearer. No Arsenal player created more chances than Rice’s 96. No one won possession back more times than his 239 recoveries. No one made more tackles than his 91.

He dictated games with the ball and without it, controlling tempo, shutting down space, and repeatedly turning defence into attack with a single intervention. When matches became stretched and frantic, Rice often looked like the calmest man on the pitch.

He was also the squad’s iron man. Across 55 appearances in all competitions, Rice racked up 4,456 minutes, more than any other outfield player. It means that in each of his three seasons as a Gunner he has been trusted to go past the half-century mark in games played. Managers only lean on players that heavily when they know exactly what they will get.

Reliability has become part of his identity.

Recognition beyond north London

The wider game has noticed. Rice was named in the Champions League Team of the Season, recognition of his performances on the biggest club stage. He also earned nominations for both the Premier League Player of the Season and the PFA Player of the Season awards, a sign that peers and observers across the league see the same influence Arsenal fans do.

His year is not over yet. Rice is currently with England at the 2026 World Cup, carrying club form into international duty and chasing the kind of summer that can redefine a career.

At Arsenal, the verdict is already in. In a season that ended with a long-awaited Premier League title and another deep run in Europe, the supporters looked across a squad stacked with talent and picked out one constant.

Declan Rice, again.