Declan Rice has dismissed talk that Arsenal are “cheating” on set-pieces with their use of blockers.
Mikel Arteta’s side were the best team at set-pieces in the Premier League last season and have continued their fine form this year.
A late Wilfred Ndidi own-goal from a corner on Saturday helped secure a 4-2 win over Leicester and no team in the Premier League this season has scored more set-piece goals than Arsenal.
The Gunners’ prowess from set-pieces has led to them being scrutinised, with their use of players to block opposition goalkeepers highlighted, but Rice believes Arsenal have not been breaking any rules.
Teams do it to us and we are just trying to exploit other teams’ weaknesses, we’ve found a way to do that again
“I think we do a little bit of work [on the delivery of set-pieces] when we can,” he said. “Obviously with the game schedule, it is really tough to get onto the grass and really practice, so we just have internal discussions about what we are going to do.
“Look, there is always going to be conversations about us blocking and making fouls, but I think the goals we have scored from set-pieces this season, I don’t think there has been one foul involved.
“Sometimes people look for a foul or people are mentioning that we are cheating in a way on set-pieces because we are blocking, but it’s part of the game. Teams do it to us and we are just trying to exploit other teams’ weaknesses. We found a way to do that again [against Leicester].”
Arsenal left it late to beat Leicester on Saturday in what was a valuable three points for Arteta’s side. Manchester City had dropped points earlier in the day by drawing at Newcastle and Arsenal knew a win would move them level with the reigning champions.
Arsenal beat Tottenham earlier this month and drew at City too, but asked if the win over Leicester was even bigger given the nature of it, Rice said: “Yeah, I think you’re right. I think we knew today coming into this game how big it was, that we had to win. When it went to 2-2, it was tough.
“You look up at the clock, you think, ‘we’ve still got time here’ - but you have also got one thought thinking, ‘we cannot drop points, we cannot drop points today if we want to compete at the end of the season and win the title’.
“Look, we kept going, kept believing and in the end three points was massive. Mentally it is tough. The anxiety is through the roof! You know the pressure of playing for Arsenal, you have to win every game.
“If you want to win Premier Leagues and cups, compete at the top, you need to be at your best and you need to win - otherwise the pressure mounts. So when that second goal went in for them today, one thought is - we can’t lose this game, we have to keep going.
“At the end it is kind of like a sigh of relief, because we won the game, we deserved to win the game.”
