Declan Rice’S dig at Chelsea immediately after Arsenal reach Champions League final | Football

When questioned about his approach ahead of the trip to London Stadium, Rice expressed his appreciation to the Hammers, who recruited him after he had been released by Chelsea at the age of 14. Rice told Prime Video: “That club gave me everything, without West Ham there’s no me.

“I honestly believe that. They gave me a chance when Chelsea didn’t. A lot of people there really pushed me on, (David) Moyes, (Slaven) Bilic and (Manuel) Pellegrini made me captain. There’s loads of good things about that club, so it’s not nice to see the position they’re in.”

On the atmosphere in the Gunners dressing room, Rice added: “But it’s football and I’ve got a job to do on Sunday. We’re trying to win a Premier League title, we want to win every game and I’m sure they will want to as well, so let the best team win.

“It is chaos in there (Arsenal’s dressing room). I don’t think you can underestimate what we have done in this competition up to this point.

“I think we have every right to celebrate that moment. The most prestigious competition in club football. We are just trying to soak it all in.”

“We knew coming into the game what was at stake. If you can’t get up for that, then you can’t get up for any game of football. When we went 1-0 up, I knew we were going to win. I could feel something special building.”

Arteta equally relished the occasion but is now eager for his squad to swiftly refocus in order to arrive in Budapest as Premier League champions.

Should they secure victory in their remaining three fixtures, against Burnley and Crystal Palace following the trip to West Ham, they will achieve precisely that.

The Spanish boss said: “It’s great. Everybody can feel a shift in energy, in belief, in everything.”

“Let’s use it in the right way and understand that the margins and the difficulty of what we are trying to achieve are huge, but that we have the ability and the conviction to do it.”