Declan Rice admitted frustration after missing Arsenal\u2019s midweek win over Aston Villa and turned that disappointment into a decisive contribution against Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Rice watched in dismay when Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es misdirected a pass to Bournemouth\u2019s Evanilson, allowing a disastrous opening goal after 10 minutes. Gabriel rapidly rectified his own mistake with a quick equaliser before Rice took control of the contest.<\/p>\n
Rice produced two near-identical finishes in the second half, arriving around the penalty area as Arsenal pushed forward. He was first set up by Martin \u00d8degaard and then Bukayo Saka, drilling both efforts into the bottom corner to put the game beyond Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his absence midweek, Rice said, \u201cI was fuming,\u201d he wryly smiled. “I done everything I can to be involved but there was just no point risking it. I made sure I was back for today which was a real positive.” He added, \u201cTo miss that [game against Villa] was annoying,\u201d he continued, \u201cto come back today and help the team and score two, I think the fans will be really happy. And I\u2019m happy myself that I could help out, because this team\u2019s special and if we\u2019re all chipping in together, I\u2019m sure good things will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta confirmed Rice\u2019s evident disappointment at missing the Villa game and explained the decision to hold him back before the Bournemouth match. \u201cHe was so disappointed not to play against Villa ,\u201d Arteta confirmed. \u201cHe really wanted it, he tried in the morning, it was nowhere near a possibility. He wanted to train the next day, it wasn\u2019t a possibility, until last minute I asked him: \u2018How are you feeling?\u2019 He said: \u2018I\u2019m in,\u2019 and he showed that he was big-time in.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether Rice ranks among the best in his position, Arteta was clear: \u201cYes, for me,\u201d the Arsenal boss admitted. \u201cFor me, the ones that we have are the best and Declan is constantly adding things to his game, constantly adding things to his role in the team and I don\u2019t see where he can stop because he can still improve in a lot of areas and he wants to improve. He is such a pivotal player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rice also highlighted the contribution of Viktor Gy\u00f6keres. \u201cIt\u2019s tough for him,\u201d Rice said of the striker, whose wait for a goal from open play now stands at nine games and more than two months. \u201cHe\u2019s got two defenders on him all game, all over him. So he has to use his strength, he has to do all he can to help the team and with that goal [Rice\u2019s first of the evening], without him making that run from Gabi\u2019s flick and holding it, setting it off to Martin, that goal wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a pivotal moment in the game for us to turn the game on its head. I see how hard he hits a ball, and when that space arrives for him and the ball\u2019s arriving at his feet to score goals, he will 100% score. ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After missing Arsenal’s Villa win, Rice said he was ‘fuming’ and answered with two second-half goals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1381],"tags":[1351,826,1380],"class_list":["post-5694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-match-reports","tag-arsenal-return","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-midweek-disappointment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}