Declan Rice didn't exactly cover himself in glory during the first half of the North London Derby. Shortly after Eberechi Eze broke the deadlock at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Arsenal midfielder pulled his teammates into a huddle.

"Boys, boys," he shouted, initiating a team talk down by the corner flag. The Gunners converged on Rice, who then offered his colleagues some words of wisdom after a spiky start to the clash.

"We need to focus," said the England international, before others, like Leandro Trossard, chipped in. As the Arsenal players dispersed and retreated to their half for the reset, Rice continued barking orders while pointing to his head, pleading for concentration.

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No more than 30 seconds later, and the Lilywhites had equalised. Randal Kolo Muani dispossessed Rice, who tried to skip past him on the edge of the box, glided into the area and evaded a challenge from William Saliba before smashing the ball past David Raya.

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The former West Ham midfielder was left with egg on his face, having failed to take on board his own instructions. Ironically, in an interview with Sky Sports ahead of the game, Rice insisted that he and his teammates mustn't take their eye off the ball.

"We're first and [there is] outside noise," said the 27-year-old. "I've found some people want to talk it up. We're on our own journey, we're on our own path and we fully believe in each other.

"We want to do it because we've got such a good core group, such quality players now that we can do it. It shows that we can flick a page in terms of people talking about that mentality.

"One thing that stuck with me after the Manchester United game, the manager talked about looking at the position that we've earned for ourselves. We have to enjoy this.

"And we enjoy it every day. Of course you do. This is our job - we're playing for Arsenal, we're in the final of the [Carabao] Cup, in the next round of the FA Cup, in the [last 16 of the] Champions League, first in the Premier League.

"We need some perspective about where we are, but also we need to look a bit bigger to understand that if we carry on doing what we're doing in terms of the results, it isn't going to last.

"It's on us as players to pick that up because we have it in us to win every game. I genuinely believe with this group, with what we've done here before, we could go on the run and easily win games.

"But it's on us. We've got to be switched on. You're going to be ready for everything that's thrown at you because that's what is needed for these final games."

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