This week Mikel Arteta committed his future to Arsenal Football Club, penning a new deal until 2031.

It was the least he deserved; it was the least he could do for the fans who have supported him through thick and thin.

That said, he is not the only key figure who Andrea Berta has been hard at work with behind the scenes. The great Declan Rice is reportedly closing in on signing a new contract that is set to put him on a par with their highest earner, Bukayo Saka.

It's great news, news that's certainly up there with Arteta's announcement. Together, they are the most important figures at the Emirates Stadium.

Why the Declan Rice signing was as important as hiring Arteta

Six and a half years. That's how long it took for Arteta to finally win the Premier League as Arsenal manager. It's been a long time coming. Arguably, it should have come a few years earlier.

Alas, the Spaniard has now earned his stripes and is looking to emulate Arsene Wenger. Whether or not he will enjoy a 20-year stint in north London remains to be seen but he's a quarter of the way there as he hunts down more trophies.

The decision to hire him was a transformative one. It has changed the course of this great football club. The same can he said of the Declan Rice signing.

Acquired for £105m from West Ham back in 2023, this was not a signing Arsenal usually made. They had never paid over £100m for a player before. Their previous record buy was Nicolas Pepe and we all know how that ended.

So, quite rightly, the Kroenkes were reluctant to shell out. Recalling the move shortly after winning the league, Josh Kroenke said:

"I don't think a deal of that magnitude was possible before 2018. When the idea of signing Declan Rice started to take shape, I remember Edu Gaspar, Mikel Arteta, Tim Lewis, and Rich Garlick sitting down with me and presenting the project for the first time. I raised my eyebrows because I wasn’t sure we were at the stage where we could pursue a player of that level."

Kroenke Jnr continued: "That is why I asked Mikel direct questions about how he would be used in the team, something I don't usually do. My main question was: if we are going to pay that amount, tell me exactly how we are going to use him. For me, a signing like this has to be ready to play immediately, go straight into the starting XI, and make an impact from the first moment."

Well, it's safe to say the decision they took to sign him was game-changing.

Since arriving at Arsenal, the midfielder has become one of the best in his position in the world. He's a set-piece wizard, a Trojan in the middle of the park. He's played 165 times for Arsenal now, scoring 21 goals and assisting 33. Has there been a better player in the Emirates era? There is a debate for another day.

How Arsenal can usurp the Declan Rice signing in 2027

The summer of 2026 represented the ideal opportunity for Arsenal to invest a significant amount in the side. After winning the Premier League and reaching the Champions League final, they were a particularly attractive proposition. Well, so they thought.

They failed to get a deal done for Morgan Rogers with the former Aston Villa attacker heading to Chelsea instead. Arsenal were not willing to pay the £117m fee that their fellow Londoners parted company with.

The biggest blow, however, came courtesy of Vinicius Junior. This was the one. The Kroenkes have only spent £100m once on a player but were willing to break the bank to bring the great Brazilian to the Premier League. It never happened; he signed a new deal in Madrid instead.

So, heading into the winter window, Arsenal simply have to find an elite forward. While deals in January are never easy, they have been presented with an opportunity to usurp that Rice move of 2023 by signing Julian Alvarez.

The simple fact is that the Argentine ticks every box imaginable for Arteta; they need an elite centre forward and they need one that's more than just a poacher.

In Alvarez, they would be securing an upgrade on both Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz; that's how good he is.

After a summer-long saga that saw him denied a £129m move to Real Madrid, as well as a dream switch to Barcelona, he is now open to the idea of moving to Arsenal, according to TEAMtalk. That was not the case in the summer when he rejected Arsenal's advances despite a personal phone call with Arteta.

However, he's been booed and abused by his own supporters since the new season started and an exit post-Christmas feels like the best sequence of events for all parties.

That, Arsenal will hope, will be to their benefit. If they can get a deal over the line for Alvarez, it would be their best move since Rice. In fact, it might even surpass it.

As good as Rice has been since trading east for north London, he is not a regular goalscorer, something Arteta and Co are simply craving.

Alvarez, by way of comparison, certainly is. He's one of the best forwards in the world. Joe Cole even remarked that he is a "Ballon d'Or winner of the future" in March 2025.

Given the World Cup winner's all-around game, that may well be possible. During his debut year in the Spanish capital, he scored 29 times and followed that up with another 20-goal campaign last time out.

Compared to Gyokeres, he's far more mobile. The stats above showcase that. Compared to Havertz, he's more clinical, all while possessing a more elite ability to link the play.

This is the type of signing that could define the next stage of the Arsenal project. Rice defined the middle part of the Arteta era, now let Alvarez, with his goals and assists, define this next sequence. As Rice did in 2023, this centre-forward from Calchín, Argentina, could take the club to the next level.

He is the game-changing attacker Arsenal have craved since the days of Robin van Persie and Co.