Mikel Arteta offers theory on Declan Rice's heated argument with Gabriel Magalhaes

The two Arsenal players were locked in a heated discussion on the pitch at full-time following the 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.

The result has all-but ended Arsenal’s hopes of landing this season’s Premier League title, with the Gunners now 13 points behind Liverpool.

Arsenal have a game in hand over Arne Slot’s side – but even if they won that – they’d still be 10 points off Liverpool with just 10 matches left to play.

With the north Londoners’ title challenge looking set to fall short for the third season in a row, tempers were high after dropping points at Forest.

English midfielder Rice was spotted gesturing and shouting towards Brazilian centre-back Gabriel by TNT Sports cameras as they left the field.

Arteta was quizzed about the incident after the match and said: ‘They’re probably demanding [more from] each other.

‘I really don’t know the topic that they discussed. I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. I walked to the referees and our supporters, and didn’t see anything.’

Gabriel has been an important player in Arsenal’s last two top-flight title challenges – having formed a key partnership with William Saliba – with the 27-year-old arriving at the club five years ago from French side Lille.

Rice, meanwhile, joined Arsenal from West Ham in the summer of 2023, with many viewing him as the final piece of the puzzle, but he couldn’t help the Gunners win the title last term as they missed out to Manchester City.

Rice, 26, has spoken highly of Gabriel on a number of occasions since they became teammates at the Emirates.

‘The one who’s really surprised me is actually Gabriel,’ Rice said 12 months ago. ‘He’s so aggressive, so strong, really wants it all the time, never loses a duel.’

In May, Rice then told Stadium Astro: ‘Do you know what, obviously there was a lot of talk about Saliba before I came here.

‘There was always talk about Saliba, no one ever really spoke about Gabriel. Honestly, that guy, without him as well we’d be in a bit of trouble.’

Both players registered decent performances in the 0-0 draw at Forest on Wednesday, with Arsenal’s problems mainly in attack rather than defence or midfield.

Mikel Merino once again operated as a makeshift striker amid Arsenal’s attacking injury crisis but was unable to make much of an impact at the City Ground.