Declan Rice has revealed that the new David Beckham docuseries provided the inspiration for his audacious goal against Chelsea on Saturday.
Arsenal shockingly went two goals behind in their London derby clash with a woefully underperforming Chelsea side in the Premier League on Saturday, conceding a Cole Palmer penalty in the first half and a freak goal from Mykhailo Mudryk at the start of the second half.
The Gunners were then sparked into the life in the final 15 minutes of the game by summer signing Rice. The midfielder was able to capitalise on a misplaced clearance from Robert Sanchez in extraordinary fashion, looping a first time side-footed effort from fully 35-yards looped over the goalkeeper and into the net.
That goal would be followed up by a Leandro Trossard goal seven minutes later, securing a point for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
Speaking about his stunning goal to the club’s official website after the game, Rice revealed that seeing Beckham’s famous halfway line goal against Wimbledon inspired him to score from such a distance on Saturday:
“Everyone’s been talking about this Beckham documentary, and I watched it for the first time last night.
“The first couple of clips are the game against Wimbledon where he scored from the halfway line and I took a lot of belief from that.
“I was just thinking that it was bizarre that I watched it last night, and then obviously today taking that shot first time and scoring. It was a special goal to kickstart our comeback, you’ve got to keep shooting – if you shoot, you score!
“In a player’s mind, you get a split second to make a decision. It’s the quickest thing that you have to do; you’ve got to think whether you pass the ball, Leo was free in front of me, or you go for goal yourself. I’ve just watched it back, it was a great finish so I was happy with that.”
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