The midfielder had a superb season in red and white, hitting a career high of nine goals in a single campaign, and laying on another 10 assists for his teammates across 52 appearances in all competitions.
And those displays saw Declan scoop 52% of all the votes cast by our Gooners to add his name to the illustrious list of previous award winners stretching back to 1967.
Only Bukayo Saka – who finished second in the voting – had more goal involvements than his England teammate’s 19 in all competitions, while only third-placed David Raya and William Saliba spent more time on the pitch than Declan’s total of 4,127 minutes.
The highlight of Declan’s season was when he netted two incredible free-kicks against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League during a memorable night at Emirates Stadium. That saw him become the first player in the competition’s history to score two direct free-kicks in a knockout game.
However there were many other memorable moments for our No. 41 across the season, including excellent goals against Crystal Palace and Manchester United in the Premier League, and a first Champions League goal against Dinamo Zagreb in January.
In May he marked his 100th appearance for the club with a goal against Bournemouth, and after grabbing the winner against Newcastle United to secure our place in next season’s Champions League, he ended the season by captaining us for the first time against Southampton on the final day.
Declan’s uplift in goals since signing for us in the summer of 2023 means he has now netted more times for us (16 in 103 games) than he did for West Ham United, despite playing 142 games fewer.
He has established himself as one of the country’s best box-to-box midfielders, winning back possession a team-high 156 times as well as creating 59 chances – only four fewer than our leader in this category, Martin Odegaard – the previous holder of the Player of the Season award. He covered 350.1km during the season, carrying the ball for 2,740m which were also the highest amongst our squad.
Declan’s domestic displays saw him rewarded with a place on the shortlist for the Premier League Player of the Year award, while his continental exploits saw him included in the Champions League Team of the Year, as decided by the UEFA Technical Observer Group.
He was also awarded both our Player and Goal of the Month awards in April, thanks to his stunning free-kicks against Madrid.
