Wayne Bridge makes Declan Rice injury claim and sends title warning to Arsenal

Wayne Bridge believes Arsenal have ‘put more pressure on themselves’ to win the Premier League by welcoming a number of apparently injured players back to the Emirates Stadium during the international break.

Mikel Arteta’s side suffered a huge blow before the international break, failing to win their first major trophy since 2020 by losing to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.

The Gunners are still on the verge of a monumental season, however, as they lead the Premier League title race by nine points and go deep in both the Champions League and FA Cup.

Arteta’s squad looked to be beginning to feel the affects of a long and draining season before the international break, with Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze missing the Wembley defeat to Man City.

Most of Arsenal’s squad was called up by their countries for the March international break but ten players pulled out of games citing various injury issues.

Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Piero Hincapie, Leandro Trossard and Martin Zubimendi all made premature returns to north London.

In contrast, only one player from Manchester City and Liverpool returned from their international duty early.

Sir Alex Ferguson would often tactically remove his players from international action to preserve them for Manchester United’s various assignments.

Ex-England defender Bridge believes Arteta has done the same for Arsenal, claiming ‘we know those players are alright’.

Former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand praised Arteta for giving his players more rest ahead of the business end of the season but Bridge believes it has ‘put more pressure’ on the title favourites.

‘You know the worst thing about it? I feel like they’ve put more pressure on themselves now,’ he said on The Dressing Room podcast.

‘I think the league is done but if they throw it away after doing that, it looks even worse.

‘Their next [Premier League] game is against Bournemouth, right? They’ve upset Arsenal a few times. I don’t think it will happen but they’ve upset them a few times.

‘We know those players are alright, we know they’re alright.’

Carlton Cole added: ‘What’s going on with Arsenal with all the players leaving international duty? Is that allowed?

‘We need to address this. Are those players out for the season now? It makes me sick actually. What’s the chances of all of them being okay for the next game?’

Joe Cole, meanwhile, says he ‘understands’ why Arsenal would want to protect their players but believe they went too far during the March international break.

‘Everyone is injured… come on, if you’re going to do a move like this, don’t strong it,’ he said.

‘How many of them do we think are actually injured? It will be a tight calf, a sore back, all of these conversations take place.

‘Players are constantly carrying a knock and a lot of these players know they’re going to the World Cup.

‘I understand it because there’s so many important games coming up and you might have a niggle – but you could play.

‘Alex Ferguson used to do this but I don’t think it happened at Chelsea, it never happened to me and I don’t remember it happening with John [Terry] or Frank [Lampard].

‘All those fans at Wembley want to see the England team not basically an England B team.’

Thomas Tuchel’s England underwhelmed in the final international break before the World Cup, losing 1-0 to Japan following a 1-1 draw with Uruguay.

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