Declan Rice Wins Arsenal Player of the Season Again
For the second year running, Declan Rice stands alone at the top of Arsenal’s mountain.
The midfielder has been voted the club’s men’s Player of the Season for 2025/26, collecting 44% of supporters’ votes after a campaign that finally dragged the Premier League trophy back to north London for the first time in 22 years and carried Arsenal all the way to only the second Champions League final in their history.
David Raya finished second in the poll, with Gabriel taking third place, but this was Rice’s award from the moment the season caught fire.
Joining an elite Arsenal club
Back‑to‑back Player of the Season winners at Arsenal are rare. Rice now becomes just the sixth man to manage it, stepping into a lineage that includes Liam Brady, Ian Wright and Thierry Henry, and joining current teammates Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in that select group.
It underlines how completely he has taken ownership of this team since arriving in north London. Runner-up in the 2023/24 voting in his debut season, he has now claimed the club’s top individual prize in each of the following two years. Three seasons, three title tilts, and Rice’s name never far from the conversation.
The engine of a title winner
If Arsenal’s season was defined by control and relentlessness, Rice embodied both. He operated as the heartbeat of Mikel Arteta’s midfield, shuttling between shielding the back four and stepping up behind the frontline, dictating tempo and snapping into duels.
Set pieces became a quiet weapon in Arsenal’s title charge, and Rice stood at the centre of that too. Across all competitions he supplied nine assists and scored five goals, including a brace in a pivotal win over Bournemouth in January that kept the momentum rolling at a delicate point in the race.
The numbers behind the award are as uncompromising as his playing style. No Arsenal player created more chances than his 96. No one won the ball back more often than his 239 recoveries. No teammate made more tackles than his 91. When the game tilted and chaos threatened, Rice was usually the one dragging it back into Arsenal’s orbit.
He also became the outfield constant in a season of high stakes and high demands. Across 55 appearances, Rice logged 4,456 minutes, more than any other outfielder in the squad. It means he has now been selected for over 50 matches in each of his three campaigns as a Gunner, a mark of durability and trust that managers covet and teammates lean on.
Recognition beyond north London
Arsenal’s internal vote is only one strand of his growing reputation. Rice forced his way into the Champions League Team of the Season, a nod to his influence on the club’s run to the final, and his performances earned nominations for both the Premier League and PFA Player of the Season awards.
The club season may be over, but his year is not. Rice now carries that form onto the international stage as part of England’s squad at the 2026 World Cup, walking into the tournament as a title-winning captain of industry in midfield and a two-time Player of the Season at a club that knows a thing or two about great players.
Arsenal have their trophy back. Rice has his crown again. The question now is how much higher he can still drive the standards from here.
