Gary Neville admits that he would be worried about Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes if Declan Rice’s injury is a long-term issue.
Rice missed Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Aston Villa due to a knee injury, although clearly the Gunners didn’t miss him at the Emirates Stadium.
Fill in the blank: I blame ___________________ for Declan Rice’s latest injury!
Mikel Arteta’s team produced a statement 4-1 win over Aston Villa, with Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Martin Zubimendi and Gabriel Magalhaes scoring the goals.
However, regardless of how the North London club fared against Unai Emery’s team, Neville has concerns as to Arsenal’s ability to cope with Rice’s injury being long-term.
Gary Neville is worried about Arsenal missing Declan Rice
Gary Neville believes that Arsenal would have a ‘real issue’ if Declan Rice’s latest knee injury were to be a long-term problem.
Neville told Sky Sports: “Declan Rice is the one player that you look at that I think if he were missing for a longer period of time, it would cause a real issue.”
Rice played 30 minutes against Brighton with the issue, and completed 1.3km of ‘high-intensity’ running, which won’t have done him any favours.
Despite missing him against Villa, they ended their 11-game winning streak in the Premier League, highlighting the quality of Arteta’s squad.
But now, Neville does not want to hear any excuses from Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title, given the amount of money Arteta has spent on assembling such a squad.
“But I said for several weeks now with Arsenal, I am not listening to one single excuse,” added the former Premier League defender.
“They’ve built a squad that is resilient, that is capable of coping with injuries, that’s got two or three players in each position.
If Declan Rice was worth £105m in 2023, what would his value be in 2026?
“Now that’s had a lot of money spent on it, and it’s been cured over a long period of time by Mikel Arteta, who’s been given a serious amount of time in the job.
“This has got to be the season where they lift silverware, they’ve got the Carabao Cup semi-final coming up in a couple of weeks.
“They’ve got obviously the Champions League, but the Premier League title is the one. It is the one they have to win.”
Mikel Arteta issues Declan Rice injury update
Arteta remains unsure whether Rice will be available for the weekend’s trip to face Bournemouth in the Premier League.
The midfielder still has swelling on his knee, and the club will need to make further assessments before learning his return date.
After the win over Villa, Arteta told the media: “Depends, so that swelling has to come right down for him to have the chance to function.
“He wasn’t able to do that today yet; he’s improving, but let’s see what happens in the next couple of days.”
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