Mikel Arteta makes Albert Stuivenberg admission after Declan Rice tunnel bust-up

Declan Rice and Albert Stuivenberg were involved in a heated exchange during the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg win over Chelsea on Wednesday night

Mikel Arteta says Declan Rice and Albert Stuivenberg have already put their tunnel bust-up behind them.

The Arsenal midfielder and Arteta's right-hand man were involved in a heated exchange during the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg win over Chelsea on Wednesday night.

Footage showed Rice visibly annoyed with Stuivenberg at half-time and Gabriel Magalhaes was forced to intervene in an attempt to calm things down.

Arteta has played down the incident and said the pair had already resolved the issue by the time he found out about it. He said: "All sorted, all good. The good thing is that by the time I found out the problem was resolved, so that's very good."

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Stuivenberg has been part of Arteta's coaching set-up since 2019 and has played an integral part in Arsenal's growth in recent seasons.

The pair got to know each other while the manager was doing his coaching courses at the National Football Development Centre in Wales towards the end of his playing career.

Arteta has lifted the lid on their relationship and said: "It's the chemistry that you feel with the person.

"Immediately the first time that we got together and we started to talk about the possibility of working together, we had a good energy, we had a good feeling about it.

"He's a top person. Someone that is so easy to work with, so open, so experienced. He's so good at dealing with a lot of people and departments because he has massive experience and the social skills to do that.

"And then somebody obviously in the tactical, technical, methodology level, he's top. So that's why he's been with us for a long time and I love to have him in the team.

"He's really good, the way he's been raised, educated, the experience that he has with other coaches as well. Very rich, he brings other ideas and other ways of thinking as well.

"And he's someone that has a very clear opinion about what he wants, he's really good at transmitting that. And he's someone very, very valuable in the team."