You may know that 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. What you may not know is the other 29 per cent is covered by Declan Rice.
At least that is how it felt watching him man West Ham’s midfield last season, and that is what Arsenal are now spending a minimum £100million to secure for themselves.
They are signing a forever-fit (Rice has played at least 80 per cent of the possible top-flight minutes in each of the past five seasons), never-still 24-year-old whose speciality is being in the right place at the right time: to win the ball cleanly and to carry it forward at speed.