Rice lauds Jorginho quality after midfield masterclass

Declan Rice was full of praise for Jorginho after the Brazilian’s Italian’s outstanding performance in the 3-1 win over Liverpool at the Emirates this evening.

The duo spoke to Sky Sports after the game, and here’s what they had to say.

Was the win sweeter after letting the lead slip in the first half?

Rice: Yeah, look, we knew the importance of the game today. The small margins in football, whether we’d won or lost, the gap would have become either bigger or smaller. And the only focus today with the fans, with the players, with everyone, with the staff, was to win and get three points.

I think from start to finish, from the training leading up to it during the week, it’s been really positive and that transmits onto the pitch and I think you can feel that today.

Was it difficult to go again after letting in the silly goal?

Jorginho: No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t because we believe in ourselves and we rely on each other. That goal wouldn’t change anything of what we’ve done the first 45 minutes. So we knew how to do it, how to get back in the second half and to go again because we knew we could do it. We just had to push each other and keep the energy high.

Why didn’t Arsenal go into their shells?

I think because we got people like him [Jorginho], Skip (Odegaard), myself. People that drive it on, you know, obviously it was a kick in the teeth to concede so late after having a really good first half but I think, like you said, we knew we had such a big 45 minutes in our season and one goal couldn’t affect that so we had to go up there and give it absolutely everything.

Did you think about about the consequences of losing?

Rice: I think when you’re competing for titles and people and stuff like he’s been there before he’ll tell you every game is so important obviously we’ve slipped up in some games of late, but today it was a real important game we had to do it the way we did. These are the moments we live for. As kids we dream about these moments. We’re really happy today.

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As someone who has won things, does it feel like this group is getting closer?

Jorginho: Definitely, definitely it is. Because it’s such a good group, they listen to each other and no one is selfish here. Everyone thinks for the group, you know, and that’s the most important thing. And the maturity that our team has demonstrated today, it was huge. When we could play and when we couldn’t play from the back, and we said we should go long as well. So that match here has really helped us and took us to where we are.

On midfield calm …

Rice [interjects]: He’s the best at it. No, obviously, before I signed for Arsenal, the prospect of playing with him, Partey, playing against him before, knowing how he controls games, how calm he is on the ball, he’s got qualities that not a lot of other midfielders have.

Is he a guy you’ve looked up to?

Rice: Yeah, of course, I’m a youngster. Playing in the same position obviously he does things that are at such a high quality and for myself I’m trying to learn and I think over the years he’s been such a top player. The manager trusts him wholeheartedly so to come in today and play like he did, he spoke to us yesterday and said the battle tomorrow was going to be massive and we were really up for it today.