‘Arsenal players ignore Declan Rice for Raheem Sterling’
Declan Rice was ignored by his Arsenal teammates despite scoring a great goal during the Gunners’ Champions League clash with PSV Eindhoven, as noted by Tim Sherwood.
Mikel Arteta‘s side hosted the Dutch giants at the Emirates on Wednesday night (12 March) in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash.
With Arsenal having thrashed their opponents 7-1 in the first leg, they went into the game all but guaranteed a place in the quarter finals.
That gave Arteta to rotate his squad, and one of those who benefitted from that was Raheem Sterling, with the Chelsea loanee making the most of his opportunity.
Raheem Sterling hailed for Declan Rice assist vs PSV
Sterling has struggled for opportunities at the Emirates Stadium since moving on loan from Chelsea back in the summer transfer window.
He was though given a start for Arsenal against PSV, and he would make the most of the opportunity with an impressive first half performance.
The stand out moment came with an excellent run and cross to set up Rice to head home from close range to make it 2-1 to the Gunners after goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ivan Perisic.
| Raheem Sterling for Arsenal | Total (as per Transfermarkt) |
| Appearances | 22 |
| Goals | 1 |
| Assists | 2 |
| Minutes Played | 863 |
Rice came under fire from Arsenal fans for his celebration after equalising against Man United at the weekend, and this time he was blanked by his teammates after getting on the scoresheet.
They instead elected to celebrate with Sterling in a show of support for the attacker after his difficult period, something which was noticed by Sherwood.
Speaking about those celebrations on Sky Sports Soccer Special (8:38pm) the former Tottenham midfielder said: “Yeah they recognise he needs a little bit of confidence so Declan’s on his own. He scored a great goal and Raheem’s getting all the cuddles from his teammates.
“He does brilliant down the right-hand side, past Malacia who’s on loan from Manchester United, beats him once, beats him twice, delivers a ball into the penalty spot and Declan runs in late and heads it down past Benitez.”
Arsenal can benefit from PSV clash rotation
Football Insider Verdict
It has not been easy for Sterling since he made the move to the Gunners in the summer, given he has struggled for game time even after the attacking injury crisis the club have endured.
Indeed, there have even been claims that Sterling will be “devastated” by his situation at Arsenal, given he came to the club to kick start his career after things went south at Chelsea.
Making this sort of impact will therefore be a big thing for him, giving him a reminder of just what he can do when he is on top form, giving him the motivation to continue in that vein.
The fact that his teammates made a point of going to celebrate with him will also provide him with a lift in terms of knowing he is still supported at the club.
All of that could help push him on to a strong finish to his time with Arsenal, which could be important given the problems they have been facing in attack recently.