Declan Rice has broken his silence on social media after picking up an injury in Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Eberechi Eze’s first-half strike against his former club ensured Mikel Arteta’s side would reestablish their four-point lead at the top of the Premier League table.
Defeats for Man City and Liverpool meant the Gunners extended their lead over their title rivals, with Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland making up the rest of the top-four.
It was a vital win for the Gunners who are now grinding out results, but the three points may have come at a cost with William Saliba, Rice and Gabriel Martinelli all picking up injuries against the Eagles.
Speaking after the match, Arteta said: “Well, the first one was Willy that obviously had to be out after the first half, Declan as well was struggling from the first half with a knock that he took, and who was the other one? Ricky. As well. So yeah, let’s see how that will go.”
He added: “On Willy there are two things related to his substitution and with Declan I don’t really know because it was a knock. But I don’t know if it was the calf or the Achilles or what exactly it was.”
However, Rice appeared to be in good spirits after the game, sharing three images on his Instagram story celebrating the win.
On the first post, the England international shares a photo of him celebrating after the final whistle, accompanied with the message: “+3 against a tough opponent. Let’s keep building [brick emoji].”
Rice then shared a graphic from the official Arsenal Instagram account, which has the caption of the infamous chant: “One-nil, to The Arsenal,’ adding his own three word message: “Onto the next [loveheart emoji]”
His third and final story post after the game, is an image of Rice in action swinging a set piece into the box.
As a result of the win over Palace, Arsenal are now six points clear of Manchester City and Manchester United, while Liverpool are now seven points adrift following their defeat to Brentford.
When asked about his title rivals dropping posts, Arteta said in his post-match press conference: “No, I wasn’t aware. I just found out at the end of the game, I think most of the players as well.
“They’re not allowed their phones at half-time, so hopefully they didn’t know about it, maybe through the staff. But yeah, I think I’m really positive.
“We came forward especially because we did what we had to do, and then it shows you the difficulty of the league and how complicated it is to win games.”