{"id":442918,"date":"2025-09-22T09:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442918\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T09:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:04:16","slug":"declan-rice-arguably-weve-had-a-tougher-start-than-any-team-inthe-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/442918\/","title":{"rendered":"Declan Rice: \u2018Arguably we&#8217;ve had a tougher start than any team in\nthe league\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/data\/arsenal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arsenal <\/a><\/strong>are five points adrift of league leaders <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/15\/arsenal\/1233818-zubimendis-statement-performance-shows-arsenal-have-more-than-one-midfield-general.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool <\/a><\/strong>in the <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/20\/arsenal\/1234431-mikel-arteta-confident-that-his-defensive-rock-will-enjoy-thebattle-with-haalandarteta-praised-the-abilities-of-a-big-brazilian-presence.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>after a 1-1 draw with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/19\/arsenal\/1234361-mikel-arteta-believes-without-a-doubt-that-man-city-arechallengers-for-the-premier-league.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Man City<\/a><\/strong>. After three straight second place finishes in the English top tier, the team know they are under scrutiny, but <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/15\/arsenal\/1233898-mikel-arteta-assess-how-difficult-it-will-be-to-win-a-maidenchampions-league-crown.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Declan Rice<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>thinks their &#8220;tough start&#8221; in the schedule should be accounted for.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t<strong>\u2018It\u2019s been a solid start\u2019<\/strong>\n\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Week to week, it will be nigh on impossible to stop the noise about <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/20\/arsenal\/1234436-mikel-arteta-comfortable-with-board-restructure-from-incrediblysupportive-ownersarsenal-are-looking-to-the-future-with-another-restructure-in-theirboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arsenal <\/a><\/strong>if they are not topping the table. They sit in second spot with a better goal difference than <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/08\/23\/arsenal\/1231448-four-things-we-learned-from-a-five-goal-rout-at-the-emiratesstadiumthe-gunners-go-top-of-the-table-with-an-exemplary-goal-difference.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tottenham <\/a><\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/08\/23\/arsenal\/1231351-puzzle-piece-kepa-arrizabalaga.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bournemouth<\/a><\/strong>,<strong> <\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/12\/arsenal\/1233493-pre-match-analysis-arsenal-face-ange-postecoglous-nottingham-forest.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rice <\/a><\/strong>reckons that the strength of the schedule until this point has skewed some of the perceptions.\u201cI think arguably we&#8217;ve had a tougher start than any team in the league,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is a tough test against a bogey team in <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/07\/30\/arsenal\/1229072-martin-odegaard-everyone-justwants-to-help-you-and-get-the-best-out-of-you.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newcastle United<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>on the horizon, and the Gunners have already engaged in three &#8216;Big Six&#8217; battles. They defeated <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/21\/womens-football\/1234656-man-united-0-0-arsenal-wsl-title-contending-clubs-cannot-beseparated.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Man United <\/a><\/strong>1-0 at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/16\/arsenal\/1233952-david-rayas-best-bits-at-arsenal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Old Trafford <\/a><\/strong>in a nervy encounter, lost 1-0 to the defending champions at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/13\/arsenal\/1233683-mikel-arteta-admits-one-of-his-summer-signings-wants-it-a-lotafter-his-first-home-league-start.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anfield<\/a><\/strong>, and have now drawn against the Citizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe played some of the best teams already. We&#8217;ve got <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/08\/12\/arsenal\/1230140-arsenal-202526-season-preview-can-the-gunners-end-their-trophy-drought.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newcastle United<\/a><\/strong> next week, then <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/data\/west-ham\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Ham<\/a><\/strong>, it doesn&#8217;t get any easier. It&#8217;s been a solid start, obviously, the defeat away at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/19\/arsenal\/1234363-mikel-arteta-admits-a-lot-of-players-in-a-really-good-momentheading-into-the-clash-with-city.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a><\/strong> really hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rice rallied the troops, asking that all parties involved in the interests of the side stick together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main thing is to keep winning games in this league. That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to keep trying. Keep staying positive, trying to dominate football matches. Let&#8217;s keep pushing and supporting everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Any dropped points will sting as possible moments that the title race went against the team when it is all said and done. But a late leveller from <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vavel.com\/en\/football\/2025\/09\/17\/arsenal\/1234033-mikel-artetaacknowledges-attacker-with-exemplary-attitude-and-commitment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gabriel Martinelli<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>is no less worth celebrating for Rice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we&#8217;d have lost today, it would have been a real kick in the teeth, but to get a point was important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal are five points adrift of league leaders Liverpool in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[161,94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-442918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115247150899454134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}