Arsenal star Declan Rice gives two-word update after suffering injury scare vs Chelsea

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Declan Rice has hinted that he hasn't suffered an injury with a positive post on social media after being forced off during Arsenal's win over Chelsea on Sunday. The Gunners beat their London rivals 2-1 to re-establish their five-point gap at the top of the Premier League - but a possible injury to Rice left a sour taste.

Goals from William Saliba and Jurrien Timber from corners were enough for Arsenal to get past Chelsea, who found the net from their own set piece as Piero Hincapie headed past David Raya . It was a hard-fought win for the home side, despite Pedro Neto's red card leaving Chelsea with 10 men in the 70th minute.

Rice appeared to pull up after sprinting back to deal with a Chelsea counter-attack in the second half. He was caught by the TV cameras grimacing and trying to stretch and Mikel Arteta didn't take any chances, bringing on Christian Norgaard to replace Rice in the 76th minute.

Asked about injuries post-match, Arteta said: "I don't know. Declan had to be substituted, so he's going to have to get checked and see if he's available for Wednesday, unfortunately. And the rest hopefully OK. But we don't know."

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There was no mention of an injury from Rice on Instagram , where he posted a photo of himself celebrating a goal with the caption "keep pushing", along with a smiley face and a heart emoji.

Arsenal are back in Premier League action against Brighton on Wednesday night before a trip to face Mansfield Town in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday. They then travel to Germany for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Bayer Leverkusen on March 11.

It's a non-stop schedule, with Arsenal still in all four competitions and challenging for a possible quadruple. Arteta conceded that changes will be made to his starting XI for the Brighton game, given the short turnaround. "We're going to have to make changes and give opportunities to everybody to be fresh," he said.

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Raya made some crucial saves to keep Chelsea out and, like Rice, also appeared to have potentially suffered a knock late on. "I don't know what happened in that action," Arteta said. "He had some niggles this week so I don't know if he's related to that. But overall, very happy."

Arteta hailed his goalkeeper, who had to be alert to ensure all three points and keep his side on track after Manchester City's 1-0 win over Leeds on Saturday night.

"David is one of our leaders without a doubt," Arteta said. "He's a keeper who knows how to maintain his focus and decide a football match when you need him. Because sometimes he doesn't participate at all and then in one action you have to be there, and that's very, very difficult to do.

"And the save that he made in the last action - it's a cross, it's not a shot, but it ended up being an unbelievable shot. I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David's hand was there to get it back to life."

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