Arsenal sends frightening warning to Liverpool and Premier League title rivals

Declan Rice's injury sent Arsenal fans into meltdown — he has become so important for the Gunners that the thought of a team without him in it prompts huge concern

Declan Rice is injured for Arsenal(Image: 2025 Visionhaus)

Arsenal managed to battle through one of its biggest injury setbacks of the season as it beat title rival Aston Villa without midfielder Declan Rice — sending a warning to Liverpool and the rest of the Premier League.

Since making his professional debut the best part of a decade ago, Rice has not missed too much action at all due to injury, and the only games he missed for Arsenal came over a year ago because of a broken toe.

Many Arsenal fans on social media were sent into meltdown by the news that Rice would not be playing, highlighting just how crucial he has become for Mikel Arteta's team. Although it's good for Arsenal that its club record signing has proved to be an important player, there is a danger that the Gunners become too reliant on him.

As well as being the fulcrum of Arsenal's midfield, Rice takes free-kicks and corners a lot of the time too — meaning when he is not there, several responsibilities must be dished out to other players.

However, Arsenal survived pretty well without him, as Arteta shifted Mikel Merino back into midfield with Viktor Gyokeres starting up front. The ability to shift the team around and get results after losing a key man is a hallmark of a title-contender, and the manner of the victory will act as a stern warning to the chasing pack.

It should also act as a lesson to Liverpool to never be over reliant on a single player – particularly in midfield – and thankfully Liverpool has a lot of players who possess a similar level of quality to each other in that area of the pitch.

Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz all possess huge talent, but none of them are as important to Liverpool as Rice is to Arsenal.

Mohamed Salah was a huge factor in Liverpool winning the Premier League last season, but having a forward who scores plenty of goals is nothing new.

Salah was a huge influence as Liverpool won the title last season(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Virtually all successful teams have prolific scorers in their ranks — that is different from having a central midfielder who is so important to everything that a team does.

Thankfully for the Gunners, though, on this occasion it does not sound as though Rice will be out for too long. “Declan got a big kick in his knee during the match [against Brighton], at the start of the match actually, and by the time he finished the match he had a massive swell up. The game [against Villa] was too early for him to be able to consider."

Asked if it was a short-term injury for Rice, the Arsenal manager added: “I think so. I hope that when the swelling comes out he can function [and] he will be fine."