Roll on November 30, the day when Chelsea host Arsenal and the unofficial battle between Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice to decide the best midfielder in the Premier League.
Fans of other Premier League clubs, one suspects Liverpool and Manchester City in particular, will have other candidates in mind, but one topic you can be sure will be trending on social media before, during and after this fixture is the Caicedo-Rice debate.
Naturally, the team you follow tends to be the player you are going to side with. It is hard to imagine hearing many Chelsea fans saying Rice is the better midfielder, nor those of an Arsenal persuasion choosing Caicedo. There is also the argument that they play in slightly different positions, with Rice generally more advanced as a No 8 and Caicedo a No 6. But why let that get in the way of all the fun?
Both players broke the £100million ($1.3m) barrier when they were signed in 2023. Rice arrived at Arsenal from West Ham in a deal worth up to £105m. Caicedo went to Chelsea from Brighton for up to £10m more. No one disputes that the money was not well spent on either man.
In Chelsea’s 1-0 win at Tottenham on Saturday, Caicedo put in the kind of performance that is hard to ignore. Spurs’ Premier League-record low xG of 0.05 took a team effort, but the Ecuador international set the tone for keeping the home side’s attack subdued with tireless energy and love for a tackle.
His efforts were rewarded with yet another man-of-the-match award. Unsurprisingly, the people he works with value him greatly, too.
“He is the best player on the planet in his position,” goalkeeper Robert Sanchez said afterwards. “Who is better than him in that position? He is a beast. Every 50-50, every challenge, he wins it. He is composed on the ball and with his finishing. If he shoots on target, it goes in.
“I know him from (when they were together at) Brighton, when he was not even playing. We talked at lunch about whether he would go on loan or not. But he got his chance and since then, he’s been flying, getting better and better. He is still only 24 and has many more years to go.
“As a character, he has always been the same, hard work, effort and he’s a very good guy. He has built up a bit more with his age, with experience, he has got better and better on the pitch, and obviously his confidence has gone higher and higher.”
When The Athletic asked head coach Enzo Maresca if he would swap Caicedo for any other midfielder in world football, the huge smile on his face said more than the words that followed. Even then, he gave a pretty strong message, saying: “Moi is showing how good he is. He’s top. For me, him and Rodri, in this moment, they are the two best defending midfielders in the world.” Rodri may not have played much over the past 12 months due to injury, but the Manchester City man won the Ballon d’Or in 2024, so it was still high praise indeed.
Often, when you hear pundits talk about Rice and Caicedo, you will hear the former is considered to be the more complete midfielder because he offers a greater attacking threat. And yet, the England international (two goals and four assists) has just one more goal involvement than Caicedo (four goals, one assist) this season, and that is with the benefit of taking a lot of Arsenal’s set pieces.
There is a lot of other data one can look at to compare the pair. Take the amount of “true” tackles (which is tackles + challenges lost + fouls committed). For want of a better phrase, this is a good way to show how much a player sticks a foot in. Caicedo’s 9.4 per 1,000 opponent touches is the 11th-highest for a defensive/central midfielder with 900 minutes or more since the start of last season. For context, Rice’s 5.3 per 1,000 opponent touches ranks 59th on the list.
Caicedo’s tackle win rate is 61 per cent — the 14th highest in the league in that time. Meanwhile, Rice is 17th with 60 per cent. When it comes to “true” interceptions (interceptions + blocked passes). Caicedo’s 4.6 per 1,000 opponent touches is the fourth highest for a defensive/central midfielder with 900 minutes or more since the start of last season. Rice is 59th on the list, again with 2.4 per 1,000 opponent touches. Caicedo averages 1.8 ball recoveries per 90 in that time — the seventh highest among that group of midfielders. You get the idea, he is some all-rounder.
The problem opponents face with Caicedo is that it just feels like he is everywhere. This map of all the tackles and interceptions Caicedo has made in the Premier League this season underlines the amount of ground he covers and how combative he is in his defensive actions.
One must flag that before Chelsea’s game at Spurs kicked off, Rice had put in a masterclass of his own to help Arsenal beat Burnley 2-0 and maintain their gap at the top of the table. He had the most touches (94), passes played into the box (7), crosses (7), carry distance (275.8 metres), tackles (5), interceptions (3), duels won (9) and possession won (9).
Should these fine individuals play like this against each other at the end of the month, it is going to be some battle. I can’t wait.