Declan Rice says Arsenal must keep “focussing on ourselves” and keep winning “ugly” if needed, after using his London Football Awards night to address the noise around the title run-in.
Declan Rice has sought to dampen external hype around Arsenal’s position at the top of the Premier League, insisting the group’s priority is staying emotionally steady and collecting results, rather than reacting to weekly judgement.
Speaking after being named Premier League Player of the Year at the London Football Awards, Rice said Arsenal’s approach is built around internal focus rather than outside commentary. “There’s a real good perspective of what we’re doing this season,” he said. “And we’re not trying to get carried away with outside noise, we’re just doing what we can do, and internally, inside our building, we know what we want to achieve, so we’re going to keep going and keep giving it everything we’ve got.”
Rice returned to the same theme when asked about criticism of Arsenal’s style during a run in which they have continued to win without always playing at their best. “Ever since I’ve been at Arsenal, there’s noise every week,” he said. “That’s what comes with playing at Arsenal. People are going to like parts of your game, people are not going to like parts of your game, but the main thing is winning.”
The midfielder’s point was that results can come in different forms, and that Arsenal have learned to value them equally at this stage of the season. “You can win ugly, you can win playing well,” he said. “There’s been times where we’ve won and played really well but it’s not felt as good as a win probably last night when we played Brighton.”
Rice referenced Wednesday’s 1-0 win at Brighton as the kind of performance that can matter most in the run-in, even when it is not polished. “We know we didn’t play well,” he said, “but to win 1-0 there, in a place that has been tough for us in recent years, means that little bit more.”
The conclusion was straightforward and deliberately unglamorous. “So just got to keep winning matches, taking it one game at a time and focussing on ourselves,” Rice added.
For Arsenal, the comments read as a public statement of mindset from a player who has become one of Arteta’s on-pitch reference points. Rice did not try to sell performances as perfect, nor did he claim the job is done. Instead, he described the reality of a title chase in London: constant scrutiny, constant judgement, and the need to keep showing up regardless of how it looks.