Declan Rice was named Premier League Player of the Year at the London Football Awards for the third time last night, edging out teammate Jurrien Timber for the honour.
The England international was one of five Arsenal winners on the night. Mikel Arteta picked up Manager of the Year, David Raya was named Best Goalkeeper, and Alessia Russo took home the WSL Player of the Year award. Eberechi Eze was also recognised for his work off the pitch, winning the PFA Men’s Player in the Community Champions award for the work of his foundation.
The ceremony took place less than 24 hours after Arsenal had opened up a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League table thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win at Brighton.
Unsurprisingly, Rice was in good spirits, even if he admitted the relentless schedule is beginning to take its toll.
“We’re lucky that games are coming thick and fast because we don’t have a lot of time to dwell on what we’re actually doing,” he told [Sky Sports.](https://youtu.be/ZI5PVzCg_hI?si=BSUHixFqa8b-ulkI)
“It’s just game after game after game, and we’re getting out there, we’re confident, we’re in the groove, and we’re playing well.
‘We’re getting three points, we’re in every competition, so the confidence is really high at the minute, there’s a real calmness around the place.
“The lads will be feeling physically and mentally really drained and tired, but that’s part of the game, that’s where you’ve got to pull yourself back up and get and keep going because it’s what the Premier League’s about, it’s what the Champions League’s about, the cup competitions.
“That’s why we do what we do, put ourselves in uncomfortable positions to then get ourselves out of it. We’re doing well, and we’re really enjoying it.”
With Manchester City dropping points against Nottingham Forest, Wednesday night felt like it could prove pivotal in the title race. The travelling Arsenal supporters certainly reacted that way at full-time, a wave of defiant optimism sweeping through the away end.
Rice, though, is not getting carried away.
“It’s going to be spoken about as a defining game, but trust me, I know it’s not. There are still eight games to go, and Man City are an incredible side.
“No one would have thought we would have dropped points at Wolves the other week, and I said after the game, you have to be on it in every game in the Premier League because every team has good players, and they’ve shocked a few people since that result.
“So Man City are going to win games, we’re going to win games, like I said, it’s going to be a roller coaster so we need to just focus on ourselves, not what they’re doing, just on what we’re doing and what we can control is winning football matches so that’s what we want to keep doing.”
While recent near misses are clearly fuelling the team’s motivation, Rice made clear that past disappointments are not something the squad dwell on.
“There’s a real good perspective of what we’re doing this season, and we’re not trying to get carried away with outside noise, we’re just doing what we can do, and internally, inside our building, we know what we want to achieve, so we’re going to keep going and keep giving it everything we’ve got.”
As for the debate across social media and in the press about whether Arsenal’s style of play is befitting champions, Rice suggested the only thing that really matters is the result.
“Ever since I’ve been at Arsenal, there’s noise every week, that’s what comes with playing for Arsenal, people are going to like parts of your game, people are not going to like parts of your game. But the main thing is winning.
“Winning now – you can win ugly, you can win playing well, but there’s been times where we’ve won, we’ve played really well, but it’s not felt as good as a win, probably last night when we played Brighton.
“We know we didn’t play well, but to win 1-0 there in a place that’s been tough for us in recent years means a little bit more. We’ve just got to keep winning matches, keep taking it one game at a time, and just focusing on ourselves.
“If you start focusing on other things, worrying if other teams are going to help you out, it’s not going to happen because this league doesn’t give anything to anyone, you’ve got to earn it yourself, we’ve got to keep going.”