Mikel Arteta had a crisp reply for the fatigue narrative gathering around Declan Rice. He said the schedule is not the problem.

“The game required it, and he did. He was as well rested against Fleetwood so he had a very good week to recover before Liverpool. It’s his second game in a week and not the fifth one,” Arteta said at his post-match press conference in Prague on Wednesday.

Rice played every minute of Arsenal’s 2-1 win at the Fortuna Arena, where Noni Madueke struck in the seventh minute and Viktor Gyökeres added a second on 39, before Wiktor Nowak pulled one back in stoppage time. For much of the second half he looked heavy-legged, and the questions started the moment the final whistle went.

‘When his energy goes’

The sharpest critic was on TNT Sports. Karen Carney, the former Arsenal midfielder, saw Rice visibly empty in the second half and said Arsenal were a different side when he faded.

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“Declan Rice is by far the best midfielder in the country, for me. When he’s tired and fatigued they are a different team,” Carney told TNT Sports, as reported by Football365.

Slavia poured players forward after the interval and almost equalised through Oskar Kubiak before Nowak eventually broke through. Steve McManaman, also on TNT Sports, suggested the second-half wobble owed more to Arsenal’s bench than to Rice, pointing to a shortage of forwards once they were ahead.

Saliba back with the squad

Arsenal’s squad is thinning. Bukayo Saka has been missing since picking up a thigh problem in the 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich on 21 October, and no return date has been fixed. William Saliba travelled with the squad to Prague after a long spell out with a back issue, though the club have not committed to a return date in competition.

With Saka out, Arsenal are leaning harder on the rest of their spine, and Rice is the engine room of that spine. Arteta said Rice “had some very good moments throughout the game”, according to Football365, and suggested that playing through fatigue is part of the job at this level.

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Arsenal top of the league before Hull visit

Arsenal are top of the Premier League and host Hull City at the Emirates at 3pm local time on Saturday.

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