Arsenal's Title Challenge and Declan Rice's Position Change

Arsenal edge towards history with a title on the line, a Champions League final looming and, in the middle of it all, their £105million midfielder being told he might need to move out of the way.

Declan Rice has spent the season at the heart of Mikel Arteta’s project, the metronome and the muscle in a team now just three wins from immortality. Yet as the run-in tightens, one of English football’s most decorated midfielders has suggested Rice’s short-term future lies not in the centre of the pitch, but out on the flank.

Scholes’ blunt verdict on Rice

Arsenal’s 1-0 win at West Ham on Sunday was fraught, tense and controversial, but it also exposed a fault line in Arteta’s squad. When Ben White’s MCL gave way, Rice was shunted to right-back to plug the gap. Arsenal lost control of midfield, and Arteta quickly reversed the experiment after the break.

The problem hasn’t gone away. White is now out for the rest of the season. Jurrien Timber remains a fitness doubt. The calendar, meanwhile, is merciless: Burnley at home on Monday, the final two league fixtures, then Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest on May 30 with the European Cup at stake.

Into that context stepped Paul Scholes, never one to soften an opinion. Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast, the Manchester United great delivered a clear, cold assessment.

"Declan Rice looks like he would suit playing at right-back to me. He can play there. He’s not a big creator anyway," Scholes said.

It was part tactical suggestion, part pointed critique. Rice, in Scholes’ eyes, is not the man to unlock a defence between the lines. He is the man who can do a job, even if that means sacrificing his preferred role.

Podcast co-host Nicky Butt had drawn a parallel with Roy Keane’s willingness to fill in when needed. "Roy Keane played right-back for two-thirds of a season," Butt noted, recalling United’s own injury-hit campaigns. Scholes backed it up instantly: "He played there loads and was brilliant."

The message, stripped of nostalgia, is stark. With Arsenal’s right side creaking, their marquee midfielder should be prepared to step back, step wide and carry the burden.

Arteta’s right-back riddle

Arteta will not lack options on paper. Cristhian Mosquera offers a more natural defensive profile on that side, while tactical tweaks could shield a less experienced full-back. Yet the stakes are brutal. Every selection now carries title and Champions League consequences.

Rice has already shown he can cope physically and tactically with the demands of a hybrid role. His cameo at right-back at the London Stadium underlined his athleticism and defensive instincts. It also underlined how much Arsenal lose in midfield without him.

Take him out of the centre and Arsenal risk surrendering the very platform that has carried them this far. Leave him there and Arteta gambles on a patched-up back line in the most unforgiving phase of the season.

That is the sacrifice Scholes is calling for. Not a theoretical debate, but a hard choice in the middle of a title race.

Kiwior’s quiet exit

While the Rice debate rumbled on, Arsenal quietly confirmed their first outgoing of the summer.

Jakub Kiwior’s move to Porto, long expected after his season-long loan, is now permanent. The Portuguese champions triggered their option to buy last week, agreeing a £14million deal that could rise to £19m. Arsenal chose not to trumpet the transfer with a grand announcement; instead, it appeared in their weekly loan round-up.

"Jakub Kiwior’s move to Porto has now become permanent following the Dragaos’ Liga Portugal title triumph last weekend," the club noted. The Polish defender did not feature in Porto’s 3-1 defeat at AFS, remaining an unused substitute as Sérgio Conceição rotated his squad.

For Arsenal, it is a tidy piece of business and a subtle reshaping of the defensive unit at a time when every body at the back seems precious. For Kiwior, it is a clean slate at a club fresh from a title win.

Three wins from greatness

Strip away the noise and the picture is simple. Win the remaining two league games and Arsenal will finally lift a Premier League trophy that has eluded them since the days of the Invincibles. Win in Budapest and they will add the first European Cup in the club’s history.

The opposition is elite. The injuries are real. The margins are thin enough to make one positional switch feel seismic.

Rice has been the heartbeat of this Arsenal side. Now the question is whether, in pursuit of greatness, he must first step away from the centre of it.