The anchorman is sometimes asked to play further forward in the midfield three, depending on teammate availability.
Arteta outlined that Rice’s versatility means he cannot limit him to just one squad role.
He stated: “With the squad that we have, he needs to be versatile. With the qualities that he has, he needs to be versatile. With the brain that he has, versatile. With the age that he has, versatile because he can offer so much to the opponent in relation to the needs in the squad. Putting Declan just in a box is in my opinion doesn’t work.”
On where Rice is best: “No because it depends, so he’s going to play as a six against a low block in relation to what the nine does, if they stay with him or go with the centre-back.
“He’s going to have one role, but against a team that presses high and the 10 is man marking him, he’s going to have another role, so it depends a lot as well on the behaviour of the opponent.”
On knowing when to praise and when to be tough on his squad in general, he added: “That’s a great point and when I talked about the priorities the other day of my five years here, the way they’ve been shifted has probably been to what you just mentioned because we realised that the first thing is they’re human beings.
“Then, that energy, that emotion, how the team is feeling about it, just always drifting that temperature to make sure it’s the right one for the game that we have in front of us.”