Declan Rice says he was surprised at how Arsenal dominated Manchester City despite playing 1-1 at the Emirates on Sunday, Softfootball reports.
The Gunners became the first team to score against the very impressive Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Italian goalkeeper kept a clean sheet on his debut in the Manchester derby before recording another one against in the Cityzens’ 2-0 win over Napoli in midweek.
Speaking after the match against Manchester City, Rice told Arsenal’s official media that the Gunners have earned huge respect for their performance.
I think the feeling of me being on the pitch, knowing my players, my team, the manager’s thoughts, the players’ thoughts, and speaking to them is that, with the ball, it was probably the first time since I’ve been here, that we’ve dominated Man City like that, in terms of passing the ball. The way we pegged them back, the way we made them play a completely different way to how they’ve ever played before, I think that shows a big respect to us on what we’re doing.
The former West Han United captain then went on to hail the late goal by teammate, Gabriel Martinelli as a great goal. The Brazilian also scored for Arsenal in their 2-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League. He said:
Obviously, the first goal was a bit disappointing because it started on the edge of their box and ended up in the back of our net. Usually, we were on that type of counter-attack, but to come back, to keep pushing, to not let our heads drop, it would have been easy, but we kept fighting and showing the mentality that we needed. In the end, I think we got a great goal from Gabi, so we definitely deserved something from the game.
Arsenal are currently second on the premier league table with 10 points after five matches and Manchester City sit ninth with seven points.
