When Jordan Henderson tipped up for media duty on the eve of this match, the world knew he would be starting against Wales.
And England fans on social media, on phone-ins, went into meltdown lite. Not necessarily because they were unappreciative of Henderson’s assets - although there are a good number who aren’t - but because it was widely anticipated he would be replacing Jude Bellingham.
As it happened, Bellingham was also selected but the point is that not a single right-minded fan ever thought Gareth Southgate would demote Declan Rice. The West Ham captain has become such a pillar of this England team that his excellence is almost taken for granted.
It will be buried beneath the praise for Phil Foden, camouflaged by the acclaim for Marcus Rashford but the performance from Rice - for the hour he was on the field - was one of the rocks this emphatic victory was built upon. He was immense.
This was, of course, a game tailor-made for his style, good Premier League standard versus mediocre Premier League standard. But if there was one unusual snippet of insight to be had from this one-sided contest then it was that there should be more to Rice’s international game than doing the dirty work.
It is a role Rice is happy to accept. His job, he says, presumably with mock humility, is to scuffle, break up attacks, win possession and then give it to someone who can really play, such as a Bellingham or, as happened frequently in the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, Foden.
To a large extent, that is his role and most successful modern teams, if not every successful modern team, has that type of operator. Don’t forget, at the Euros last year, Southgate liked deploying a couple of them - well, one and a half in the sense that Kalvin Phillips was allowed to venture forward now and again.
But the Welsh approach was so cautious in the first half that Rice felt compelled to try and be creative as well as destructive and was responsible for prompting a couple of decent England attacks.
Make no mistake, there is a world-class box-to-box midfielder in Rice and he has been developing that aspect of his game under David Moyes at West Ham.
For now, though, when on England duty, he is mainly on sentry duty and, for that, Harry Maguire and John Stones must be deeply grateful.
As they were against the United States, Maguire and Stones were, more or less, without fault on the extremely rare occasions they were tested.
And the fact that those occasions were so rare was down not only to the Welsh being so thoroughly pedestrian but to Rice’s trademark vigilance.
It might not be N'Golo Kante levels but he covers some ground and at a speed that is deceptively high. And, as he so humbly says, that industry allows the artists to paint their pictures.,
It allows Foden’s genius to flourish, winning the free-kick that Rashford so brilliantly converted for England’s first and then gleefully tapping in Harry Kane’s assist for the second.
Rightly, the garlands will be strewn at Foden's dazzling feet, Rashford’s resurgence will be rightly acclaimed and Bellingham will receive his usual plaudits.
Others will highlight the integral role of captain Kane, even though he has failed to find the net in the three games and the central defensive pairing will be congratulated on a second clean sheet.
But after Foden had scored the second, one man stood alone in front of the England fans, fists clenched, arms pumping, taking a raucous salute from the masses. And no one deserved it more than Rice who, moments later was told to take a rest by Southgate.
Told to rest because the manager knows… knows that if this England team is to go really deep into this tournament, no one will be more vital to the cause than Declan Rice.
