Declan Rice claims Manchester City defending with five at the back is down to Arsenal's quality this season

Arsenal and Manchester City played out a 1-1 draw at the Emirates in the Premier League on Sunday. The in-form Erling Haaland drew first blood for City in the 9th minute with their first real attack of the game. While Arsenal dominated possession and were perhaps the better team on the night, they had to wait until injury time to get their equalizer.

Substitute Gabriel Martinelli produced a moment of magic with an excellent run and finish to earn the hosts a precious point. Post the match, the Brazilian was joined by Declan Rice to share their thoughts on the game. Rice spoke to Sky Sports about Martinelli's importance in the team:

"Massive. Ever since I've come to the club, he scores in big games. A lot of players can sulk when they're put on the bench, but everytime he comes on, he shows his heart and desire."

Regarding the Brazilian's finish, Rice said:

"The run and the finish is unbelievable. At that time in the game, to have that composure, he really deserves it. Even though we couldn't win today, I thought we dominated. We couldn't break them down, fair play to them. But he (Martinelli) came on and produced a moment of magic, so we're happy with that.

Martinelli mentioned that the Gunners were unlucky not to come away with three points:

"It's these moments I work for. In some moments I thought we played really well and were unlucky in certain moments, we had some chances. It was a great ball from Eze and I just tried to put it in the back of the net. But we need to work more and try to win those games."

Martinelli opened up on gelling with the midfield players:

"With the players that we have: Declan, Martin, Merino; I know if I make three of those runs, the ball will come to me at least once."

Rice was asked if Manchester City have now been playing on the counter-attack rather than building from the back this season. The former West Ham man said that the change in City's tactics was down to Arsenal's quality.

"We've gained the respect of the opposition. They know the quality that we have from the back to the front. I think in my time here at Arsenal, we haven't dominated the game against Manchester City as we did today. In the first half, we passed and moved really well, and in the second half, the same. (We applied) constant pressure. But there was always that threat of them on the counter-attack. But in the end, we deserved that goal. If we would have lost that game, we'd be really disappointed. A point's probably fair, but we wanted to win that one."

Arsenal had the lion's share of possession throughout, with 68%, and Rice revealed what Arteta's message to the team was at halftime:

"I could sense some frustration in the stadium because we had so much possession, but they defended really well. We had one or two chances in the first half, and in the second half we knew we had to step on it, and within the first five minutes, we created two or three. So the message at halftime was to keep going, keep pushing, keep overloading, and in the end, they went to a back five, 5-4-1, which I've never seen them do. They were trying to hang on."

Arsenal have ten points in their bag from their first five matches and are five points behind league leaders and defending champions Liverpool. Their next Premier League fixture is against Newcastle away from home.