I’m writing this column as I fly back to London from Madrid and I’m honestly finding it tough to sum up exactly how I’m feeling after last night’s events in the Bernabeu.
It just doesn’t get any bigger than what Arsenal did at the home of the 15-time European champions. They came of age in front of our eyes. It was just very, very special to witness.
Declan Rice was phenomenal over the two legs.
That was as good a 180 minute performance as you will see from a player on the biggest stage.
Obviously he got plenty of praise after his free-kicks in the first leg, and rightly so, but the performance he produced at the Bernabeu was as good as it gets.
He was a colossus in the heart of midfield. I don’t think there was a single blade of grass on that pitch that he did not cover.
It was a tireless display. A performance for the ages on the biggest of stages from Arsenal’s £105 million man.
It didn’t matter who he was up against, no-one could get near him.
He was just everywhere, from breaking up Madrid attacks at one end to driving Arsenal forward at the other.
You can’t really single one thing out when it comes to his performance and that’s what makes it so special. It just encapsulated everything that you need or want from a midfielder.
The perfect all round display.
Jude Bellingham couldn’t cope with Declan Rice – and it showed
You could see how frustrated Jude Bellingham was by it all. Like all the best players, Bellingham clearly has an ego, you can see that by the way he plays and to be fair it’s that arrogance that sees him stand out from most other players. He feeds off it.
But his ego was clearly bruised by the way Rice monstered him over the two legs.
There was only one England star midfielder on the pitch at the Emirates and at the Bernabeu and it certainly wasn’t Bellingham.
It was a tough start to the season for Rice. Like most players who had been at the Euros and gone deep into the competition he struggled to really hit his top form over the opening months of the campaign.
But he’s there now and he has been for the past couple of months.
Very few big money signings live up to their price tags. You just have to look at the biggest transfers in football history to see that.
The price tags weigh heavily on most, but it doesn’t on Rice.
“Declan Rice, we got him half price” is the song that the Arsenal fans sing. It’s very hard to argue against that.
