Rice draws on Arsenal's title formula to fuel England's 2026 World Cup ambitions

Declan Rice has drawn a direct line between Arsenal’s Premier League title triumph and England’s bid to end 60 years without a World Cup, insisting he sees the same hunger in the national squad that carried the Gunners to their first league title in 22 years.

Rice, who was central to Arsenal’s championship-winning campaign, said the key lesson from north London was eliminating distraction. “I think it’s just about not getting distracted, focusing on the job,” he said. “I noticed a difference in terms of blocking out the outside noise, focusing on what we know we’re good at, internally working really hard to achieve what we’ve done.”

England have not won the World Cup since 1966 and have suffered back-to-back European Championship final defeats in recent years. Rice acknowledged those near-misses but framed them as motivation rather than baggage. “We’ve had two Euros finals losses. And we’ve got that fire in us to know we want to go one step further, and we believe if we can.”

The Arsenal midfielder also reserved significant praise for head coach Thomas Tuchel, describing him as “incredible” both as a man-manager and as a tactical operator. Rice pointed specifically to Tuchel’s half-time address during England’s Group opener against Croatia in Dallas — a game England went on to win — as an example of the German’s impact.

“Stuff we’d worked on, he hadn’t liked what he’d seen in that first half, and he said what he felt,” Rice told ITV. “It was just that it gave you a whole different perspective of a football match. It was something you wouldn’t usually hear from a manager at half-time and I think it was what we all needed to hear. You’re kind of listening to it thinking: ‘wow.’ He’s actually spot on.”

Rice suggested Tuchel has elevated his own standards in the international environment and that the squad believes a deep run is within reach. “With this squad we have, we can achieve great things with him. And that’s obviously on us to deliver it.”