Carney warns Declan Rice 'looked exhausted' in Arsenal's win over Slavia Prague
Declan Rice played every minute of Arsenal's 2-1 win over Slavia Prague on Wednesday, and according to Karen Carney, it showed.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres secured the points in Prague before Wiktor Nowak's late strike set up a nervy finish. Mikel Arteta's side held on to maintain their unbeaten start in this season's Champions League, just days after a hard fought victory over Liverpool.
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Arteta named a full strength side for the trip to the Czech Republic, with Rice lining up alongside Martin Zubimendi in midfield while Ebere Eze, Mikel Merino and Gyokeres were also handed starts. But it was Rice's continued presence in the side, despite ongoing fitness concerns, that caught the eye of TNT Sports pundit Carney.
Speaking after the match, Carney said: “Results, the table, 10 points from 12 games, hopefully they'll finish in the top bracket so they don't have to play that extra game. We'll be picky in the second half because there's high expectations and these margins matter. Overall, they got the job done, especially after the Liverpool game, there was a lot of tired bodies out there, Declan Rice looked exhausted.”
Arteta's response
Arteta showed little sign of concern when discussing the performance afterwards, instead focusing on Arsenal's determination to go further in the competition after last season's Champions League final defeat.
He said: “Always we need to value winning away in the Champions League. It is extremely difficult. Two very different halves. We should have had three or four goals in the first half but we didn't do it. Right at the start of the second half we were on the back foot, very sloppy and gave balls away. Then we had to suffer. A lot to learn. We should have scored more in the first half and if we didn't do that we had to go and do that in the second half. We made six changes but we know the quality of the players we have. Whether we were lacking something I don't know but I would have done the same thing [again]. I value what the team has done now, it is 11 away games we played.”
A recurring issue
Rice's fitness has been a talking point since before the World Cup, when he was left out of the dead rubber group stage match against Panama due to workload management from Thomas Tuchel.
Last month, Arteta acknowledged the need to carefully manage the midfielder, saying: “Yeah, we have to manage him because he's had a few issues since he came back from the World Cup. Hopefully tomorrow he's available, and some others also are in doubt.”
With Arsenal continuing to rotate across multiple competitions, how Rice's minutes are handled in the coming weeks is likely to remain under close scrutiny.
