Declan Rice has hinted that he perhaps hasn't sustained a serious injury with an optimistic social media post after being substituted during Arsenal's victory over Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners defeated their London rivals 2-1 to restore their five-point lead at the summit of the Premier League - but a potential injury to Rice left a bitter note. Goals from William Saliba and Jurrien Timber from corners were sufficient for Arsenal to overcome Chelsea, who scored from their own set piece as Piero Hincapie headed past David Raya.
It was a hard-won victory for the hosts, despite Pedro Neto's sending off leaving Chelsea with 10 men in the 70th minute. Rice seemed to pull up after sprinting back to handle a Chelsea counter-attack in the second half. He was spotted by the TV cameras wincing and attempting to stretch and Mikel Arteta took no risks, introducing Christian Norgaard to replace Rice in the 76th minute. When questioned about injuries post-match, Arteta stated: "I don't know. Declan had to be substituted, so he's going to have to get checked and see if he's available for Wednesday, unfortunately. And the rest hopefully OK. But we don't know."
There was no reference to an injury from Rice on Instagram, where he posted a photo of himself celebrating a goal with the caption "keep pushing", accompanied by a smiley face and a heart emoji. That he did not reference any issue is a positive sign for Arsenal supporters.
Arsenal return to Premier League duties against Brighton on Wednesday evening before a journey to face Mansfield Town in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday. They then head to Germany for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 encounter against Bayer Leverkusen on March 11.
It's a relentless fixture list, with Arsenal remaining in all four competitions and pursuing a potential quadruple. Arteta acknowledged that alterations will be made to his starting XI for the Brighton match, considering the brief turnaround. "We're going to have to make changes and give opportunities to everybody to be fresh," he said.
Raya produced some vital saves to deny Chelsea and, like Rice, also seemed to have potentially sustained a knock late on. "I don't know what happened in that action," Arteta said. "He had some niggles this week so I don't know if he's related to that. But overall, very happy."
Arteta praised his goalkeeper, who needed to remain sharp to secure all three points and keep his side on course following Manchester City's 1-0 victory over Leeds on Saturday night.
"David is one of our leaders without a doubt," Arteta said. "He's a keeper who knows how to maintain his focus and decide a football match when you need him. Because sometimes he doesn't participate at all and then in one action you have to be there, and that's very, very difficult to do.
"And the save that he made in the last action - it's a cross, it's not a shot, but it ended up being an unbelievable shot. I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David's hand was there to get it back to life."