We exploit weaknesses. That's not 'cheating', says Arsenal's Declan Rice

Arsenal's decisive third goal against Leicester on Saturday was their 26th from a set piece since the start of last season. 

RELIEF: Arsenal's Leandro Trossard celebrates their 94th minute goal which finally broke Leicester resistence at the Emirates Stadium. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

MIKEL ARTÉTA calmly tried to cut through the post-match delirium of an injury-time victory, on the day title rivals Man City dropped points, by reminding Arsenal players and supporters they have played only six games. “It is only September,” he stated.

Midfielder Declan Rice, meanwhile, was a couple of rooms away offering an insight into the stress levels already running through the Arsenal camp. The season is young, but they have had to negotiate away days at Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City as well as a Champions League tie at Atalanta in the opening month or so.

Thoughts of returning home for some ‘easier’ fixtures was scoffed at by Rice, as he and his team-mates switched focus to Tuesday's Champions League visit of Paris Saint-Germain. The Premier League is the priority for Arsenal. The Champions League is a very close second and no cause for easing the pressure.

Rice explained: “Mentally, it is tough. The anxiety is through the roof because you know the pressure of playing for the Arsenal; you have to win every game. And if you want to win the Premier Leagues and cups and titles, compete at the top you need to be at your best, and you need to win. Otherwise, the pressure mounts.” 

Rice explained how that pressure manifested itself on Saturday against a seemingly hopeless Leicester. Two second half Justin James goals cancelled out Arsenal’s first half strikes from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard. That left them scrambling a win deep into time added on with a Trossard volley deflecting on off Wilfred Ndidi for an own goal and Kai Havertz netting a 90+9 minute tap in.

Said Rice: “When that second goal went in for them thoughts are ‘we can’t lose, we have to keep going.’ At the end, it's kind of like a sigh of relief. We won the game, we deserved to win the game and the first half was the most comfortable we have been this season, but still so much to improve on.” 

And improving on last season’s run to the last eight of Europe’s elite, expanded cup competition is what Rice and co. aspire to.

TAP-IN: Arsenal's Kai Havertz scoring his sides fourth goal

“It's obviously a different format now. We're coming up against probably tougher teams than you would in a normal group stage format. We've got an exciting night here in our second game. Usually you'd find these games quarter-finals, semi-finals. So, for it to be our second group game is massive. And we need to get points on the board in this new format. We'll be ready. We're excited because we've not played PSG before. They're a top team.

“It's tough, but mentally we have to wrap our heads around the schedule. The games are coming fast with so many meetings and so little training sessions to prepare. But the way we're playing at the minute, we're really confident we can go into any game and be ready.

“That comes from the manager that we keep pushing. And we've got a set of lads on the pitch who are ready to do anything to win. Take this game; we kept persisting in what we do. It was really, really good. A massive game.” 

No surprise too that Arsenal’s decisive third goal came from a corner. It marked their 26th set piece finish since the start of last season – four more than second ranking Everton and eight better than their title challengers City and Liverpool.

Asked to analyse their strength, Rice took the opportunity to address suggestions they are coached to cheat and foul to get the best out of corners and free kicks. Arsenal, he said, do no more than what every other club in the game has the capacity to do.

“We do do a little bit of work when we can. With the game schedule, it's really tough to get onto the grass and really practice. So, we just have internal discussions about what we're going to do. But look, there's going to always be conversations about us blocking and us making fouls. The goals we have scored from set pieces this season... there has not been one foul involved. People are looking for a foul or mentioning that we're cheating on set pieces because we're blocking. That’s part of the game - teams do it to us. We're just trying to exploit other teams' weaknesses and we found a way to do that again in this game that we had to win.” 

ARSENAL: Raya 6, Timber 8, Saliba 7, Gabriel 6, Calafiori 6, Rice 6, Partey 6 (Nwaneri 85), Trossard 8, Saka 7, Havertz 6, Martinelli 7 (Sterling 74). 

Subs not used: Neto, Kiwior, Jesus Jorginho, Kacurri, Lewis-Skelly, Nichols.

LEICESTER CITY: Hermansen 9, Justin 8, Faes 6, Okoli 6, Kristiansen 5, Winks 5, Skipp 5 (El Khannouss 90), Buonanotte 6 (Ayew 85), Ndidi 6, Mavididi 6 (De Cordova-Reid 90), Vardy 6. 

Subs not used: Ward, Coady, Fatawu, Choudhury, Pereira, Edouard.

Referee: Sam Barratt 5.

Attendance: 60,323