Summary Declan Rice was outstanding for Arsenal in their narrow 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace, with impressive defensive stats and contributions on the ball. Rice recently had a slip of the tongue and referred to Arsenal as West Ham, showing his close connection to his former club. He also joked about no longer being the Premier League's most expensive player after Chelsea signed Moises Caicedo.

Declan Rice was "outstanding" for Arsenal as his team picked up a narrow victory in their most recent Premier League outing – though he appeared to forget who he was playing for after the game.

How good was Declan Rice vs Crystal Palace?

In the final game of the second round of league fixtures, the Gunners took on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and managed to come away with all three points.

It was some quick thinking by Gabriel Martinelli from a free-kick that opened up the game as Eddie Nketiah was fed in behind the Eagles' backline, only to be tripped by Sam Johnstone.

Referee David Coote pointed to the spot and Martin Odegaard made no mistake from 12 yards. This goal was enough to seal a 1-0 victory although the final stages of the game were complicated by a controversial red card to Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Mikel Arteta and co dug in deep, though, and came away with the win. In no small part, however, the victory was owed to the impressive efforts of new £105m midfielder Rice.

Indeed, as per Squawka, he finished the game with some colossal defensive stats, winning three duels, making one interception, one tackle and also winning possession back four times – while not giving away a single foul.

On top of that, he also contributed plenty on the ball, with 68 touches, a 90 per cent pass accuracy, seven passes into the final third, and once chance created.

Journalist Henry Winter was certainly impressed as he called Rice "outstanding" and this was further backed up by his 8/10 player rating in The Sun.

In that article, Joshua Jones added: "A superb performance in the middle of the park, running the show for large parts from a slightly deeper position but making lots of well-timed runs forward.

"It will take a long time and plenty of silverware to repay his £105million price tag – but more showings like this one in South London will certainly go a long way to doing exactly that."

Rice's highlights have emerged online and they are an absolute masterclass in how to dominate the middle of the park – you can watch them below.

Why does Rice wear 41?

After completing his major move to the Gunners, Rice opted to continue wearing the No. 41 jersey which was given to him as a youngster at West Ham. He explained the origins of this when speaking to Gary Neville in 2022 on an episode of The Overlap (via Goal).

He said: "It was just a number I was given in the academy by the kitman. It's stayed with me since and, to be honest, I had this conversation with my dad – regardless of what happens in my career I might stay with the 41.

"I think 'Rice 41' has a nice ring to it, I've grown up playing in it and I'm a bit superstitious about things like that… I don't know if I changed to a new number if it would hamper my performances, I don't know!"

Read the latest Arsenal transfer news HERE…

West Ham are still very close to Rice, clearly, and after his stellar display against Palace on Monday night, he appeared to get mixed up about who he was playing for these days.

When talking on Sky Sports' MNF (via Twitter), he had a big slip of the tongue, saying: "Even here at West Ham, the lads are always on to me to shoot more."

While on the same show, he was able to at least joke about no longer being the Premier League's most expensive player after Chelsea recently completed a £115m deal to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton.

He was asked: "Can't believe Caicedo has broken your record already though Declan, you can't be happy with that?"

Laughing, Rice joked back: "I had it up on the wall for two weeks, it's come down already!"