‘No fear’: Rice rejects Rooney criticism and sets sights on Arsenal comeback

Declan Rice has rejected Wayne Rooney’s claim that Arsenal have a “psychological fear” of winning trophies and insisted they are capable of overturning a one-goal deficit against Paris Saint-Germain to reach the Champions League final.

Mikel Arteta’s side were criticised by the former England forward after losing the first leg 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium last week after an early goal from Ousmane Dembélé, with Rooney stating in his role as a pundit for Amazon that Arsenal are “used to getting to a certain stage of the season and things fall away”. But having already beaten PSV Eindhoven and Real Madrid away in the knockout stages this season, Rice was adamant that they have the belief to get past PSG after their comfortable 2-0 victory against Luis Enrique’s side in the group stage back in October.

“It was the same team other than Dembélé and [Khvicha] Kvaratskhelia. Everyone else started and we beat them. So there’s no fear,” said the England midfielder. “I think the goal inside three minutes probably shocked us a little bit, shocked the atmosphere a little bit. But once we found a foothold in the game again, we started creating chances. The goalkeeper made some amazing saves. We fully believed that we could beat them. Obviously it wasn’t meant to be, but we’ve seen enough and we know enough as a team that we can do something really, really good.”

Rice is Arsenal’s joint-second top scorer in the Champions League with four goals after his two brilliant free-kicks in the victory against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. The return of Thomas Partey from suspension means Rice will revert to a more advanced midfield position for the second leg, with Jurriën Timber and Riccardo Calafiori also expected to be available for selection. Luis Enrique confirmed that Dembélé will play having been substituted at the Emirates Stadium with a hamstring problem.

Asked whether he sensed Arsenal are on the brink of achieving something special, Rice said: “I think you need to have full belief. We certainly have that as a group. The manager certainly drills that into us every single day. If we’re the best versions of ourselves tomorrow night, and we know we can be that, there’s no stopping us getting into that final. We really need to be positive. You can’t come into a semi-final away at Paris and not have that belief and courage that you’re going to come here and win the game. So we’re ready and we’re looking forward to it.”

Arteta, who has won just the one FA Cup since taking over from Unai Emery in 2019, also believes Arsenal’s moment has come. “Winning trophies is about being in the right moment, in the right place,” he said.

“Liverpool have won the title with less points than we have in the last two seasons. With the points of the last two seasons we would have two Premier League [titles], so you have to be in the right moment and in the right place. Hopefully we are in the right moment, in the right place – in Paris tomorrow – to earn the right to be in that final.”