Declan Rice spoke to Premier League productions after our 2-0 win over Man Utd this evening. Here’s what he had to say.
On the result ..
Massive. Yeah, what a night, we obviously knew the new manager from Man United. They looked really good their last couple of games, so we knew it would be a test. But we stuck to our game plan, stuck to what we knew, and in the end, you know, I think we could have had three or four. But it was a top performance all round.
On scoring from set-pieces again …
You have to believe in your process. We believe in our process, you know, we keep at it all the time. We never get bored. When you go up for a corner, there’s a chance to score a goal. It’s not a chance to relax and chill. So to score again on both of them, I know Nico will be buzzing, and yeah, I’m so happy for them both as well.
Are you working on set-piece delivery more than normal?
It’s really tough, because with the game schedule, it’s hard. It’s more just seeing clips, to be honest with you. I know what I need to do, and I know the weight of the ball I need to put in, whether it’s front or back.
So yeah, it’s just repetition when I’ve got the chance, but if not, it’s just seeing where I can improve. It also depends on the opposition, you know. Yeah, I put in a few good balls tonight. Could have had a couple of assists, but to get one, I was happy with that.
Arsenal now building momentum …
Yeah, for sure. I think when you have a blip in the league, you get written off. And, you know, we stuck together as a group. We knew that that wasn’t the case.
The run of results we had weren’t good enough, but we got together as a group, and we knew we could be doing better, and now we’re starting to see a return on that, which is a real positive.
On Liverpool dropping points at Newcastle …
Yeah, it’s good. Look, people get carried away with the title talk, but I was involved in my first one last year, and you just need to be in and around it by February time, you know.
I think it’s too early to be calling what’s going on. Liverpool dropped points, you know, but are they still 10 above? [Corrected by interviewer] Seven! It’s closer, but there’s still a long way to go.
We’ll keep believing in ourselves, and we’ll see what happens.
Arsenal 2-0 Man Utd – player ratings
If what he showed tonight means he is starting to come back to his best after a subdued start to the season, then that is another reason to get excited, because when he plays like that, he is like 2 players in one in that midfield!
I was loving his drives with the ball at his feet, constantly bypassing 1 mf and drawing in a second defender to feed a free martinelli!
Be careful what you say about Corners, Declan. My dodgy sources tell me that FA is already looking at ways to stop Arsenal from scoring from corners. They’re considering banning goals from corners, count goals from corners as half goals, or ban corners altogether in the EPL. FA will “have no choice” than to do something about goals from corners.
Signed
Jobless Celebration Police. We haven’t had the chance to pick on Arsenal all season
There’ll be a lot of talk about set pieces, as there always is whenever we score from one, but the fact that we had 13 corners to United’s big fat zero demonstrates how dominant we were in open play as well.
And the fan near the pitch side microphone who kept shouting Kiwior every time we had a corner? Well we never got bored of him