Why Declan Rice is ‘so annoyed’ despite comfortable Arsenal win over Dinamo Zagreb

Declan Rice was left frustrated with himself for a late miss despite Arsenal’s comfortable 3-0 win over DInamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

It was a good night for the Gunners as they moved up to third in the Champions League table with just one game to play.

It means that just a point at Girona in their final group stage game will secure them a top eight spot and passage straight into the last 16.

Rice opened the scoring after just two minutes against the Croatian side, with Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard also finding the back of the net, but it was a missed chance that lingered with the England midfielder after the game.

Ethan Nwaneri swung in a cross from the right, picking out the 26-year-old perfectly but he got his header all wrong from close range and it looped wide.

‘I’m so annoyed, honestly, because I had the same position against Man Utd in the cup and I missed and then the same there,’ Rice told TNT Sports.

‘So I’m getting in the right positions when I play, obviously scored a good goal in the first half but I’m annoyed I didn’t get a second, you know. I’ve got to be a bit more clinical. But to get my first Champions League goal, obviously it has taken me two seasons, but I’m so happy. Hopefully many more to come.’

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wants more goals from Rice, who has scored just once in the Premier League this season, and expects them to come.

‘The last few games, he had some big chances,’ said the Spaniard. ‘The more consistent he is in those positions, with the quality he has, he will score goals.’

The Gunners have not exactly been short of goals this season, scoring 14 in seven Champions League games and 43 in 22 Premier League outings, but they have not been as clinical as they could be.

Rice says Arteta has made it clear to the team that he expects them all to chip in with the goal-scoring, especially after injuries to the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus in the forward line.

‘It’s so important, the manager has been on us really hard about midfielders arriving because so many goals can come from there, it’s down to us to make up that extra five, 10 yards,’ said Rice.

‘Martin obviously did it right at the end of the game, I did for the header, so we got to keep arriving there but everyone is contributing.

‘Look it was an important win tonight. It’s been a very positive Champions League campaign, so we’ve got one more to go now, hopefully we can win that as well.’

The boss added: ‘I’m happy. We generated quite a lot [of chances]. Declan [Rice] especially, but he missed a few big chances, and really good from Martin [Odegaard]. His first goal [and] he really needed that.

‘You could tell by the way he celebrated that he had an anger and a desire to do it, so overall a really positive night.’

Arsenal have a swift turnaround as they go to Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday at 3pm.