‘It’s going to be tough’: Declan Rice ready for DR Congo challenge in last 32

D eclan Rice is reflecting on the pivotal moment of his season so far, the one when plenty of people thought it was about to go wrong for him and Arsenal. It was a narrow and painful defeat for them at Manchester City in mid‑April, which meant the clubs were stride for stride with each other at the top of the Premier League. The momentum was with City. Were Arsenal about to blow it? The TV cameras picked out Rice on the Etihad Stadium pitch and, as he shook his head, he was easy to lipread. “It’s not done,” the England midfielder said. It was not. Arsenal won all of their remaining league games, finding a way through unbearable levels of tension. City did not and Arsenal were champions for the first time since 2004. “It could have gone either way,” Rice says with a smile. “That would have lived with me for ever.” It was in the same territory as Steven Gerrard’s “We do not let this slip” comment from 2014 as Liverpool closed in on the title. Which was just before he and they did slip. Imagine the memes. “Exactly,” Rice says. “I’ve got enough of them. Luckily, it went the way I wanted it to be perceived, even though it was crazy how that all came about.” The point, as Rice and England prepare to face the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 32 of the World Cup in Atlanta on Wednesday, is that things never run smoothly in the pursuit of rare achievement. There will be stress. There will be doubts and doubters. Fine margins. Moments when it is purely about resilience. …