Rice vows Arsenal 'coming back for more' after losing voice at Premier League title parade

Declan Rice declared Arsenal will be “coming back for more” next season after losing his voice during a raucous Premier League title parade attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters around the Emirates Stadium in north London.

The celebrations came just days after a painful Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest, where Arsenal were eliminated 4-3 on penalties following a goalless draw after extra time. Gabriel Magalhaes missed the decisive spot-kick in the shootout, handing PSG back-to-back European crowns.

Rice, who rapped Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby and led the crowd in a chant of “set-piece ole ole ole”, said he was left “speechless” by the scale of the celebrations. “Seeing the joy we can give people is crazy,” said the midfielder. “But next year we’re coming back for more. Get locked in or get locked out.”

The title is Arsenal’s first in the Premier League era since 2003-04, ending a 22-year wait that has defined much of the club’s modern identity. Despite the elation on the streets of north London, the Budapest defeat lingered, and Rice was candid about the pain of the shootout loss.

“An incredible season, given absolutely everything up to this point,” he said of the Champions League final. “We took the game to penalties and it’s a lottery. You either win on pens or lose on pens — some of the best teams ever have lost on penalties in finals and we were on the receiving end of that tonight.”

Rice was also quick to defend the players who missed in the shootout, pointing to the contributions of Gabriel and Eberechi Eze across the full campaign. “That happens in football, they’re not going to be the last players to miss penalties in finals. Everyone’s missed a penalty and without them two this season we wouldn’t have won the Premier League, that’s for sure. Gabriel, I’ve run out of words for him as a person, as a player, and Eze as well — the crucial goals he’s come up with for us this year. It happens, it’s football, it’s cruel. We take the positives and we’ll keep going.”

Rice is set to link up with the England squad ahead of the World Cup, leaving behind a season in which he established himself as one of the defining players of Mikel Arteta’s project.