Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has questioned whether there were issues from the FIFA World Cup that boiled down to the incident between Arsenal‘s Declan Rice and Chelsea‘s Morgan Rogers. The Gunners star intentionally tripped the Blues forward during a counter-attack, and the referee opted to ignore it.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Scholes called out Rice for the foul, calling it the ‘most annoying thing in the world’. He claimed that the Chelsea man’s reaction was justified and said:
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“Do you think there’s a little bit of something between Rogers and Rice? Do you think there might have been a little bit of something during the summer? What Rice did to him was the most annoying thing in the world. When people just leg you up when you’re running. He snapped Morgan Rogers and rightly so.” (via GOAL)
Rice was reported to be one of the players pushing Rogers to join Arsenal this summer when they were together at the FIFA World Cup. However, the Englishman opted to join Chelsea, who were happy to pay £117 million to secure the signing from Aston Villa.
Paul Scholes now believes that it might have played a part in the coming together during the Arsenal vs Chelsea match in the Premier League on Sunday, September 6.
Arsenal star comments on facing Chelsea’s Morgan Rogers
Arsenal missed out on signing Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, but secured Ezri Konsa from the Villa Park side. The defender spoke about facing his former teammate during the Chelsea clash, saying he was delighted to come out on top.
“I love duels. As a defender, I think these are things you have to cherish. For me personally, I love a challenge. I love being in duels. I had a few today and I’m glad I came out on top. Rogers is a good friend of mine, but on the pitch, it’s a different story. I saw the opportunity to go in and make the tackle and it came off.”
Konsa made a crucial tackle to stop Rogers from getting through on goal in the second half, minutes before the foul by Declan Rice on the Chelsea star. Arsenal were leading 2-1 at the time of the two incidents, and managed to hold on to their lead until the end of the game.
The Gunners are now second in the table after three games, while the Blues sit fourth.
Edited by Sripad
