Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has been speaking about the Premier League title race after the win at Liverpool on Sunday afternoon

Declan Rice is refusing to rule out Liverpool as title contenders despite Arsenal opening up a nine-point gap on Andoni Iraola's side with victory at Anfield on Sunday.

Kai Havertz scored the only goal early on during a controversial encounter in which the Reds were denied what appeared a clear penalty when Alexander Isak had his shirt pulled by Jurrien Timber when attempting to head home a Bradley Barcola cross.

Arsenal are now three points clear at the Premier League summit and are already odds on to retain the crown they took from Liverpool last season.

But Rice does not regard the Gunners as the team to beat this season and is adamant it is too early to dismiss the title claims of their nearest challengers.

“No, because look at Liverpool," said the Arsenal midfielder. "They have secretly gone under the radar, their attack is incredible, the defence is really good.

"Man City have started really strong, Chelsea are there or thereabouts so I’ve learned in this league November means nothing.

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"You just have to win as much as you can and in February or March if you are there or thereabouts you are in with a chance. So just keep winning and take each game as it comes and see where it takes us."

Liverpool were the only team Arsenal failed to score against on their way to winning the title last season with the Reds unbeaten in their previous four meetings.

And Rice was delighted by the manner in which the Gunners secured their first victory at Anfield in the top flight since a 2-0 triumph in September 2012.

"It's our first (league) win here in 14 years so that’s what the manager has been drilling into us all week," he said. "So to come here and deliver, we’re really happy.

"Any team who has won here in the past has never had it easy, it’s always going to be tough coming to Anfield so we had to dig in, we had to give it everything because they throw so many attacks at you. We had to be resilient and strong. It was a great win and in the end we’re really happy."

Rice added: "What this manager has built at this club and the togetherness of the lads, you don’t get that performance without the lads being altogether.

"The way the manager has everything under control, the way everyone works towards everything he wants is not like anything I’ve ever seen before so credit to us for what we have been doing for the last few years.

"Now it’s a massive thing to deliver again this year and keep pushing. We’ve set those demands on ourselves and it’s up to us to keep delivering that."