Declan Rice insists Arsenal will be back | OneFootball

Declan Rice has suggested Arsenal’s Champions League elimination is a setback on the way to bigger things, adding that the team will be back next season.

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On Wednesday night, Arsenal suffered elimination from the Champions League with a semi-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, despite having plenty of great chances across the two legs.

The Gunners could have scored on one or two occasions in the home game, and despite heading to Paris 1-0 down, they were unfortunate not to be ahead within 10 minutes at the Parc des Princes.

Even so, when Arsenal’s only goal of the tie eventually came, it was too late to really make a difference. PSG left the ground 3-1 winners on aggregate, and Declan Rice said afterwards that the squad will learn from the setback.

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“In life in general, I think sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win,” Rice said. “You have to overcome some of these setbacks and mentally grow, as a person, as a player, and as a group.

“And I think we’re going through that stage at the minute, after a few losses in terms of losing out on the league, coming close in the Champions League in back-to-back years.

“We’re growing as a team, as people, but we need to keep pushing and keep believing.

“This isn’t going to define us. For sure, we’re going to be back. And when we get our players back who have been out for a very long time we’re going to be a much stronger outfit.”

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The comments should be encouraging to Arsenal fans, as it suggests the view within the squad is that this isn’t the end of the journey.

Gunners supporters have been scarred in previous years by Arsenal teams that seem to be on the verge of winning things before losing their best players at the key moments. They won’t want that to happen again with this current group.

As Rice mentions, Arsenal have been playing a lot of this season with one hand tied behind their back.

Key starters like Kai Havertz and Gabriel Magalhaes are still out, and Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori, and Ben White have all spent months on the sidelines as well.

That’s not to mention other key squad players like Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and even Jorginho’s recent absence at a pivotal moment. The club would expect better results with everyone available more consistently.