Asked about his approach ahead of the trip to the London Stadium, Rice thanked the Hammers for scouting him after he was released by Chelsea aged 14, telling Prime Video: “That club gave me everything. Without West Ham I wouldn’t be the person I am.”
“I honestly believe that. When Chelsea didn’t give me a chance, they gave me a chance. A lot of people at Chelsea really backed me,[David]Moyes,[Slaven]Bilic and[Manuel]Pellegrini made me captain. There are a lot of good things about that club, so I’m not happy to see them in the position they’re in.”
On the atmosphere in the Gunners’ dressing room, Rice added: “But this is football and we have a job to do on Sunday. We want to win the Premier League title and we want to win every game and they will want the same, so we want the best team to win.”
“It’s chaos over there[Arsenal’s dressing room]. I don’t think you should underestimate what we’ve done so far in this competition.
“I think we have a right to celebrate the moment. It’s the most prestigious competition in club football. We’re just trying to soak it all up.”
“We went into the game knowing what was at stake. If you can’t stand up for that, you can’t stand up for any game of football. When we led 1-0, we knew we were going to win. We felt something special was building.”
Arteta similarly relished the opportunity, but is now keen to quickly refocus his team to arrive in Budapest as Premier League champions.
Victories in their remaining three games against West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace will do just that.
“It’s great. You can feel the change in everyone, the energy, the belief, everything,” the Spanish coach said.
“Let’s use it in the right way and understand that although the margins and difficulties of what we are trying to achieve are enormous, we have the ability and the belief to accomplish it.”
