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Arsenal beat Chelsea in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, but it wasn't all plane-sailing with Declan Rice believed to have brutally slammed Gunners coach Albert Stuivenberg
Declan Rice was involved in a heated argument with Arsenal assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg at half-time of the win over Chelsea. The Gunners led their London rivals 1-0 in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, though Rice has been captured far from happy with it now being suggested what he may have said that forced Gabriel Magalhaes to intervene.
A Ben White header from Rice's corner had put the Gunners in front during a first half that they largely dominated. Despite that, the Gunners midfielder was not best pleased by something and took out that anger on Stuivenberg.
A clip uploaded to Tik Tok by @pl.playbook shows Rice and the Gunners staff member clashing in the tunnel with Gabriel stepping between the two in an attempt calm things down. Though Stuivenberg eventually leaves the scene, Rice can be seen gesticulating angirly, shaking his head and throwing his arms up in the air.
It is unclear exactly what was said in the incident, but Jeremy Freeman, who is an expert lip-reader, has revealed to the Daily Mail what may well have been said during the clip.
He claims that Rice begins the exchange by stating "just go," before Gabriel intervenes to say to Stuivenberg: "Stop, please stop, please stop".
According to Freeman, Rice then says: "Oh for f***'s sake", before brutally stating: "He doesn’t know what the hell he is on about?" In all of this, Gabriel is continually asking him to stay calm.
The 27-year-old has been superb for Arsenal this season, in both boxes, with his leadership qualities praised and his outburst was likely just another indication of him wanting to set standards as high as possible.
Alongside that, club captain Martin Odegaard has been criticised for not doing more of that, though Arteta made it clear the armband is staying where it is.
Before the season started, Arteta said: "My opinion is clear and it is not just my opinion, it is all the staff and especially the players. I asked them to vote for the captain and I got the results yesterday.
"By a mile, by 100 miles, everybody chose the same person which is Martin Odegaard. Which is the most clear sign you can have is how they feel about who has to be their captain, to defend, improve and win the matches we want to win. I think there is no question about that."
Odegaard has impressed in recent weeks, but found it difficult to make an impact against Chelsea. Despite that, Arsenal scored three goals with Arteta complimentary of his team in attack, but equally disappointed at their defensive display having conceded twice.
He said: "First of all, I have to praise the players for the performance, for the game that we just played against a really good opponent.
"With so much quality on that pitch, we had the feeling at the end after the 1-3 and the very dominant period that we had in that time, that we had two massive chances to score the fourth one and the result would have been very different.
"But in that moment, they had an action, they created a corner, they scored a goal, and's it’s game on. So that feeling is not perfect but as well we have to value what the team has done again."
Arsenal have five games before contesting the second leg at Emirates Stadium with Premier League matches against Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Leeds United coming alongside European clashes with Inter and Kairat Almaty.
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