Declan Rice sends one-word message to £65m Arsenal player after yesterday's North London derby win

09/16/2024 01:15 PM

Declan Rice's availability record since he arrived in North London has been pretty exemplary for Arsenal – an underrated attribute in football these days.

Despite only playing just over a season for Arsenal, it felt odd to watch a Mikel Arteta team without Rice on Sunday against Tottenham Hotspur.

Rice was missed by Arsenal, but they overcame his absence by surrendering a bit of possession and making the most of set-pieces – which wasn't necessarily Arteta's plan.

Either way, Arsenal took three points back to N5, which was ultimately all that mattered given that Martin Odegaard was also absent too.

And after producing a similar performance away to Aston Villa a few weeks ago, Arteta's side should be well-positioned for a trip to the Etihad – if you ever can be.

Kai Havertz delivers an understated masterclass against Tottenham

Even with Rice back in the side against Manchester City, Kai Havertz will still need to produce a similar performance to the one he did against Spurs on Sunday.

Havertz was strong in his duels, led the press well, and did a lot of the running for Arsenal up top.

READ MORE: Arsenal have begun contract talks with £27m star after interest from Paris Saint-Germain

There wasn't necessarily a reward for Havertz from a goal-scoring point of view, but Arteta will no doubt be extremely proud of his performance. 

Perhaps the Arsenal manager was tempted to play Leandro Trossard as a false nine, dropping Havertz into a number 10 role, but he limited the changes and it paid off.

That being said, after winning the derby, the £65m forward took to Instagram to celebrate with the red half of north London.

Havertz uploaded a post with the caption: "Enjoy that one gunners?" and also added the chance to vote for 'YEAH' or 'YEAH!!!!'.

Rice immediately replied to the post saying: "YEAHHHHHH" – evidently delighted that his side did the job on his behalf. 

Ethan Nwaneri deserves to start against Atalanta in the Champions League

Of course, another success story from the derby was Ethan Nwaneri's short cameo towards the end of the 1-0 win.

Nwaneri was entrusted with a lot of responsibility by Arteta – who has refused to put his youngsters at risk in the past.

Therefore, the Arsenal manager felt as if the 17-year-old had the maturity to deal with the situation, as he did.

Gabriel Jesus gave Nwaneri some advice, and thereafter you would never know that the youngster is yet to start a senior game of football.

That being said, with Rice playing alongside Thomas Partey against Atalanta on Thursday, perhaps Arteta will decided it's time for Nwaneri to make his full debut.