Mikel Arteta reveals Declan Rice update as Arsenal handed key triple injury concern | OneFootball

Crucial hard-fought win over Chelsea may have come at a cost for the Premier League leaders

Subbed off: Declan Rice did not last the full 90 minutes as Arsenal beat Chelsea

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Declan Rice will be assessed after he asked to come off during Arsenal's win over Chelsea.

The Gunners made it 11 matches unbeaten against the Blues with a 2-1 win on Sunday to move five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.

For the first time since December 3, Rice started a Premier League match and did not play the full 90 minutes.

He looked tired in the second half, and did not move well after playing one poor back pass straight out of play, and the England midfielder was replaced by Christian Norgaard with 15 minutes remaining.

"Declan asked to be substituted," Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta confirmed after the match. "He's going to have to get checked and see if he's available for Wednesday [against Brighton] unfortunately.

"The rest hopefully ok, but we don't know."

David Raya was key to Arsenal's win, making several crucial saves, but he stayed down more than once.

After Chelsea were reduced to 10 men, with Pedro Neto shown a second yellow card, Raya sat down and required treatment.

He was also especially animated after the match and Arteta revealed that the goalkeeper had been dealing with minor injury issues in the days leading up to it.

"I don't know what happened in that action," Arteta said. "He had some niggles this week so I don't know if it's related to that."

Arsenal were dealt a couple of injury blows ahead of kick-off as Martin Odegaard and Ben White were both left out of the squad.

A knee complaint ruled Odegaard out of the match, while White failed to recover from an issue that also made him unavailable for last weekend's win over Tottenham.

“Unfortunately Martin is still not feeling totally comfortable with that knee injury, and we decided not to risk him,” Arteta said on Odegaard ahead of the win over Chelsea.

Mikel Merino is a long-term absentee for Arsenal after surgery on a rare foot injury, while youngster Max Dowman played 45 minutes for the Under-21s against Ipswich in the Premier League 2 on Friday night as he steps up his return from an ankle ligament problem.