Though Arsenal remain six points off Liverpool having played a game more, Declan Rice has said they will “hunt them down” after beating Man City 5-1.
Arsenal capitalised on Man City‘s downfall on Sunday with a 5-1 victory at the Emirates that heaped misery on Pep Guardiola’s side.
It came after results for Newcastle, Bournemouth and Aston Villa went City’s way, and instead of cementing their place in the top four they allowed Arsenal to keep relative pace at the top.
Despite their win, though, Arsenal remain six points off Liverpool who hold a game in hand – that game finally being played away to Everton next Wednesday.
Speaking after his side’s win, Rice told Sky Sports that Arsenal intend to “hunt down” the leaders.
“Liverpool are still quite far in front, especially with the game in hand, and with them winning obviously yesterday we know going into the game that we have to win these games,” he said.
“It’s more disappointing that it’s the games like [against] Villa where we’re 2-0 up and we drop those types of points, Brighton away when we’re winning, we could be up there closer to Liverpool.
“But like the manager says every time, we’ll be there, we’ll keep pushing and we do need other teams to help us.
“Liverpool, credit to them, they’ve been really, really good so far, they’ve got top players and it’s down to us to hunt them.
“They’ve got themselves in this position, so respect to them, but we obviously know the goal we want and that’s to hunt them down and to win the Premier League. That’s what we want to do.
“There’s still a long way to go, there’s still so many games to play, but we need to stay positive and keep taking each game as it comes. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Arsenal have come in for criticism for their approach to a so-called rivalry with Man City, with Myles Lewis-Skelly mocking Erling Haaland’s celebration after making it 3-1 at the Emirates.
From an outside perspective it seems entirely manufactured, with the two sides gulfs apart in terms of success, but Rice looked to explain their position.
“I think is a thing that’s been building up over a certain amount of time,” he continued.
“Obviously they nicked the title off Arsenal the year I wasn’t here and last year they beat us to the title. So it’s been hard to accept that.
“Then obviously with the Etihad at the start of the season, everything that went on there, you do kind of have that fire in your stomach to want to come out here today at your home stadium and try and mend that.
“In the end we did and we’re so, so happy, the boys are buzzing in there.
“But it’s still such a long way to go. We’ve beat them today and we now go on to Wednesday [against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup semi-finals] which is massive.
“We’ve got to keep pushing, because we’re still a couple points off the top and that’s where we want to be. We’ve got to keep going.”
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