Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was mocked by fans of his former club West Ham as the two sides met at the Emirates Stadium, as per Guardian journalist Ed Aarons.
It was a disappointing afternoon for the Gunners on Saturday (22 February), as they were beaten 1-0 by Graham Potter’s side.
That could have major implications for the Premier League title race, with Mikel Arteta’s side now eight points behind league leaders Liverpool, with both sides having played 26 games.
For Rice, this will have been a particularly frustrating result and performance from an individual perspective for a number of reasons.
Declan Rice flops against his former club
This clash of course brought Rice back into contact with his former club in the form of the Hammers.
The midfielder had previously come through the youth ranks and spent his entire senior career with West Ham before joining Arsenal in the summer of 2023.
Earlier in the season Rice had sent a message to West Ham fans after returning to the club in a 5-2 win for the Gunners at the London Stadium.
It was however a different story in the reverse fixture at the Emirates, with Mikel Arteta’s side slipping to a damaging 1-0 defeat courtesy of Jarrod Bowen‘s goal just before half time.
Rice himself failed to impress in that match against his old team, and was substituted 56 minutes in along with Ricardo Calafiori, to be replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
That gave the West Ham fans the chance to stick the boot into the Arsenal midfielder, with Aarons posting on X: “Lewis-Skelly replacing Declan Rice to massive cheers from the away end. ‘You should have signed for a big club,’ they sing to the former West Ham captain.”
