Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice emphasized the importance of developing a more resilient mindset during games, following the team’s consecutive point losses, including a 2-1 defeat against Fulham. This has impacted their pursuit of the Premier League title.
Arsenal missed an opportunity to take advantage of an early lead from Bukayo Saka at Craven Cottage, dropping to fourth place with 40 points at the midway point of the season after a 2-0 home loss to West Ham United on Thursday. Despite pressure from reigning champions Manchester City and Aston Villa’s recent victories, Declan Rice stated that Arsenal will not panic.
“When you go 1-0 up, you need to take more control and have more self-belief,” Rice told Sky Sports.
“You need to have more desire, the mentality needs to be better. We need to demand more for each other.
“In this league, there’s no room to mess up. There’s so many good teams around you and we want to be pushing up the top end of the table. It’s a tough one to take today.”
Arsenal is not solely focused on the standings, Rice stated.
Villa and Liverpool both have 42 points, with Liverpool leading on goal difference. Later on Monday, Liverpool will host Newcastle United, while City is currently in third place with a game in hand.
“There’s a lot of media who talk and say ‘Arsenal will win the league this year, Arsenal are better this year’, and whatnot. But we don’t get involved in that, we just try to take every game as we can, one by one,” Rice said.
“We’ve been doing really well. There’s been a blip in the road, but there’s no room to panic. There’s still so many games to go, we need to stay positive. It’s not the time to be negative.”
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