Declan Rice praised Gabriel Martinelli’s stunning late equaliser as “unbelievable” after Arsenal battled back to snatch a point against Manchester City.
The Gunners fell behind early when Erling Haaland struck on the counter in the eighth minute. From then on, Arsenal controlled much of the match but looked set to leave empty-handed until Martinelli’s late strike rescued them.
It was the second time in a week that Martinelli had made the difference from the bench, after his goal and assist against Athletic Club on Tuesday.
“When you come off the bench, at that point of the game, 60, 70, 80 minutes, the game’s a completely different game to the start of the game,” Rice said. “The game’s opened up, it’s more stretched, and for players like Gabi [Gabriel Martinelli], they’re unbelievable when they do start. But when they come on, their strength, which is their pace, their dribbling, helps them massively because there’s so much space, and in the end, that run and finish, was unbelievable. We fully deserved it.”
Rice added that Arsenal showed real dominance with the ball against City, something he believes is a sign of progress under Mikel Arteta.
“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,” he said.
Despite conceding a disappointing opener, the England international applauded his teammates’ resilience.
“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.”
The 1-1 draw lifted Arsenal back into second place after five games. Rice pointed out that their start has been one of the toughest in the league.
“I think arguably we’ve had a tougher start than any team in the league,” he said. “We’ve played some of the best teams already. Obviously, we’ve got Newcastle next week, then West Ham, it doesn’t get any easier. It’s been a solid start, obviously, the defeat away at Liverpool really hurt us. Obviously, if we’d have lost today, that would have been a real kick in the teeth, but to get a point was important.
“The main thing is to keep winning games in this league, and that’s what we’re going to keep trying to do. Keep staying positive and keep trying to dominate football matches. So, let’s keep pushing and keep supporting everyone.”
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