Declan Rice reveals how Arsenal dressing room reacted to late Porto winner

Declan Rice has warned Arsenal cannot be expected to blow every team away by “five and six” goals.

But Rice insists that Arsenal remain full of confidence in the title race and will improve from their steep learning curve in Europe. Arsenal return to Premier League action on Saturday when they face Newcastle in what has become a huge crunch game for the Gunners as they look to turn up the heat on rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.

But after smashing 21 goals in their last five Premier League games, they drew a blank in the Champions League in Porto after failing to even register a shot on target and now they will have to turn around a 1-0 defeat in next month’s return leg.

Rice admitted that even the Arsenal players were bemused in the dressing room as to how they could go from scoring goals for fun to a dismal defeat. Gunners midfielder Rice said: “We just said that. Not every game is going to be fives and sixes. You are going to come up against teams who are watching us and seeing what they can do to stop us.

“I don’t think we had a shot on target in Porto, so it is tough to take, it is tough to hear that. But we are really positive still, there is a real positivity around the place at the minute.

“We are going to keep our heads held high and go again on Saturday and give it everything against Newcastle. Coming into it as a new player, I have seen how many leaders there are in the team that drive it on and really want the best for each other.

“That is so good that there is an honest speaking group. If you want to win things and go far in things, you need that. We said some stuff in there, positive stuff, and it’s about Saturday now. We have to park what happened in Porto and revisit it in two weeks.

“There is a real