The midfielder scored in victory over Bournemouth yesterday.
Arteta said: "We thought that, that was going to be very related to the spaces he was going to occupy on the pitch. But then it's something else to do it in this league. He's done it. Credit to him. Even when we've changed him from position to position, it's not easy to adapt to that, so I think he deserves a lot of credit for that."
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Asked about Rice's best position, he continued: "Yeah, but that's why you need to think about the relationship between those units, what comes out of that, and is it better than using certain other things.
"That's also related to the moment that the player is in in the season and what kind of opponents you play and what kind of game you imagine more of a threat."