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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes (Picture: Getty)
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes congratulated Declan Rice after the Arsenal midfielder reached 300 Premier League appearances in the 4-0 win over Leeds United.
Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League with an emphatic victory over Leeds at Elland Road.
Mikel Arteta’ side had gone three league games without a win but got their title charge back on track against a Leeds side who had lost just one of their last 11 games.
The league leaders took control through Martin Zubimendi’s 27th-minute header and an own goal from Leeds goalkeeper Karl Darlow.
Any hopes of an unlikely Leeds comeback were ended when Viktor Gyokeres scored his fourth goal in six games, while Gabriel Jesus added Arsenal’s fourth late on.
The dominant victory puts Arsenal seven points clear before their two title rivals, Manchester City and Aston Villa, face Tottenham and Brentford respectively on Sunday.
Rice celebrated not only a convincing Arsenal win at Elland Road but also his 300th Premier League appearance.
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Declan Rice during Arsenal’s win over Leeds United (Picture: Getty)
The England star nodded to that impressive milestone on social media after the game and received a reply from Fernandes which simply read: ‘Class’ with a clapping emoji.
A little over 200 of Rice’s Premier League appearances came at his boyhood club West Ham.
Arsenal paid over £100m to sign the former Hammers captain and have watched him establish himself as one of the best midfielders in the world.
Speaking after Arsenal got back to winning ways in the Premier League against Leeds, Arteta said: ‘Very, very happy obviously.
‘A very impressive performance, a very impressive result and in the context that we’ve done it.
‘When you have the difficulty of the game and the opponent that we’re facing, with their recent form and the style of play that they have at the moment and the energy that the stadium brings, then the fact that after three results that didn’t go our way in the league, we really wanted to show how much we wanted it, and I think we’ve certainly done that today.
‘The mentality is good, and to play with that level of enjoyment about where we are, and then with the conviction to believe in what we do and how good we are, and that we can beat any opponent, and we certainly have done that.
‘But then you have to show the quality as well in this league to do it, and it came out in great ways from different players as well.’
Arsenal’s next assignment is a Carabao Cup semi-final second leg clash against London rivals Chelsea.
The Gunners have one foot in the final, where they would face Man City or Newcastle – after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-2.
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