Rice credits Arteta's relentless drilling after Arsenal's first Anfield win in 14 years

Declan Rice has credited Mikel Arteta’s meticulous preparation for Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Anfield on Sunday, the club’s first Premier League victory at Liverpool in 14 years, which moved the Gunners clear at the top of the table.

The result extended Arsenal’s remarkable run to eight wins from nine Premier League games, with six clean sheets in that stretch. Rice said the manner of the win — gritty, defensive, and hard-fought — was precisely what Arteta had been building towards all week.

“It’s just drilled into us,” Rice said. “What this manager has built at this club and the togetherness of the lads — you don’t get that performance without the lads being altogether. The way the manager has everything under control, the way everyone works towards everything he wants is not like anything I’ve ever seen before.”

The victory drew comparisons to Arsenal’s narrow win at Nottingham Forest last month, a result that sparked debate about whether the Gunners needed to be more expansive. Rice pushed back on that framing, insisting that grinding out results is a hallmark of title-winning sides.

“What I’ve learned in this league is that every game is different, no game is plain sailing,” he said. “Looking back at that Forest game, it wasn’t the best performance but we ground it out and we won, and there’s going to be more of that this season. But results like this just make it that extra bit special.”

Rice also pointed to the scale of the challenge at Anfield, noting that Liverpool under Andoni Iraola remain a formidable opponent. “Any team who has won here in the past has never had it easy. We had to dig in, we had to give it everything because they throw so many attacks at you. We had to be resilient and strong.”

Attention now turns quickly to the Champions League, with Arsenal back in European action on Wednesday.