Declan Rice reveals how Arsenal team-mates reacted to agony of draw at Wolves and warns ‘nobody is going to hand us the title’

Declan Rice revealed Arsenal‘s furious stars had a ‘firm’ chat in the wake of their calamitous 2-2 draw at Wolves. 

The Gunners held a two-goal lead over the bottom club at Molineux but only left with a point after conceding a brutal stoppage time equaliser to give Man City a huge boost in the title race. 

Mikel Arteta‘s side have finished second repeatedly in recent seasons, unable to end their silverware drought. 

Questions over the leaders’ mentality are beginning to come to the fore once again after the Wolves result and Rice has spoken about how the squad are handling it. 

He told the Sun: ‘We’re not going to be handed it, we need to go and win it, we need to deserve it and we need to be ready for anything that is thrown at us.

‘We spoke to each other in a firm way after Wolves, we knew we’d let ourselves and the fans down after being in such a good position.

The Gunners are in danger of letting their lead in the title race slip and have the derby next

‘Letting it slip is not the standards that we have set ourselves this season. We had a team meeting and we are ready to go again.’

Arsenal players were permitted a day off to recover and collect themselves in the wake of the Wolves result ahead of a massive north London derby this weekend.

It would be the perfect game for the leaders to show their championship mettle, particularly with Spurs buoyed by a change in the dugout with Igor Tudor stepping in as interim boss. 

Even though critics are piling the pressure on Arsenal, a defiant Rice went on to point out that the team have only lost three games in all competitions all season.

He added: ‘We believe we have a squad to win every game, the mindset and the mentality is there. Look at this season, we’ve lost three games in all competitions, that’s it.

‘It’s never going to be easy if we are going to win our first league title in 22 years.’

Man City could cut the gap to two points if they beat Newcastle at home before Arsenal visit Tottenham on Sunday. 

The Gunners remain firm favourites to capitalise on their advantage in the title race, according to the bookmakers. 

But a negative result against their fierce rivals would only see the outside noise raise in volume and give City even more belief, with both sides still to play each other at the Etihad before the end of the campaign.