Topics: Arsenal, West Ham United, Declan Rice, Football
Declan Rice and Oleksandr Zinchenko’s full-time exchange after England vs Ukraine has got Arsenal fans dreaming.
On the back of their victory against Italy, Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions arrived at Wembley looking to make it two wins out of two in their Euro 2024 qualifying round.
Having become England’s all-time record goalscorer on Thursday, Harry Kane opened the scoring with a typical poacher’s finish in the 37th minute.
Just three minutes later, Bukayo Saka’s stunning curling effort made it 2-0 and that in truth, put the game beyond the visitors’ reach.
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England produced a professional second-half display to seal the 2-0 victory.
After the match, as both sets of players shook hands, Arsenal fans spotted Rice and Zinchenko sharing a quick embrace, which got them excited.
One fan posted a video of the pair, whilst claiming that Zinchenko said: “You joining?” to West Ham captain Rice.
Another fan reacted, tweeting: “My informal Captain. Arsenal true and true. Zinchenko is the man.”
A third fan said: “Zinchenko to Rice : you joining? Rice replied with yeah.”
Someone else wrote: “Zinchenko taking the opportunity to tell Declan Rice to come to #Arsenal.”
Whilst a fifth commented: “Zinchenko held a passion talk with Rice post game.”
Over the last few months, 24-year-old Rice has been heavily linked with a move to the Emirates in the summer as his West Ham future remains uncertain.
It has been reported that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has made Rice his priority in the next transfer window.
Whilst speaking to Channel 4, former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard was full of praise for Rice.
He said: “It was a fantastic display [vs Italy] and he’s had a little bit of criticism of late. Certain people have questioned certain things that he does.
“He’s a specialist in there. He’s a holding midfielder who’s got great legs, great energy.”
Gerrard continued: “He can burst forward, he can see a pass. We can see that he can get on the scoresheet. It was the perfect way to answer any criticism.
“To go away to Italy, a really tough game – get man of the match, be dominant and help your team get over the line, which he did.”
