Mikel Arteta expressed optimism about the severity of Declan Rice’s injury, hoping it isn’t “too serious” after the Arsenal midfielder left the pitch with a suspected hamstring problem during their 5-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

Rice, a summer signing for £105 million, seemed to communicate “hammy” to a teammate when he was substituted in the 73rd minute, with Jorginho taking his place and Arsenal leading 3-0. Following a late double by Gabriel Martinelli, Arteta provided updates on both Rice and goalscoring center-back Gabriel Magalhaes, who also exited the match early.

Confirming the situation, the Gunners’ manager stated, “Declan was feeling something in his hamstring, so we didn’t want to take any risks with the score at 3-0. Gabby was coming off a tackle I think on his knee and he was struggling a little bit. I hope it’s nothing too serious.”

Despite the setbacks, Arsenal’s day was overwhelmingly positive as they ended a winless streak of four games by defeating Roy Hodgson’s struggling Palace. Brazilian Gabriel opened the scoring in the 11th minute, followed by an own goal from Eagles goalkeeper Dean Henderson before Leandro Trossard and Martinelli secured the win.

Arteta, elated with the victory, shared his thoughts with TNT Sports, saying, “The positivity we had right from the beginning. I had a really good feeling in the last 10 days about the team and how they reacted. They are great players, we have a great team and today they really wanted it. I could feel that.”

Bukayo Saka, although not scoring or assisting in the match, emphasized the importance of the win and the early goal, stating, “It’s really important. First thing was to win today but that early goal helped. It calmed us and we could control the game more.” Reflecting on their recent break in Dubai, Saka added, “Dubai was really nice for us to have that break. We weren’t in the best form before that and it helped us refresh and work on the things we needed to.” He expressed confidence in the team’s goal-scoring abilities and celebrated the five-goal performance, highlighting the positive impact of the much-needed rest.

Declan Rice

This season he played in total 21 times for 1819 minutes for Premier League.

Declan Rice scored 2 goals for Arsenal. He procured two assists. He received 2 yellow cards and no red cards.

His team is currently 3rd in Premier League. In the last match Arsenal won 5-0 against Crystal Palace. The next match in Premier League will be against Nottingham Forest.

Arsenal performance and stats

Arsenal is currently 3rd in the Premier League with 43 points.

In the last 21 games, it has won 13 times, drawn 4 times, and lost 4 times. In its last match, Arsenal won 5-0 against Crystal Palace.​​

It has a positive goal difference after scoring 42 goals and conceding 20.​

Arsenal will play the next match in Premier League against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday 30th of January in Nottingham.​