Declan Rice continues to feature prominently for Arsenal despite looming injury fears

Karen Carney has expressed worry surrounding Declan Rice's fitness claiming the Arsenal star looked "exhausted" during the 2-1 win over Slavia Prague. Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres were on target as the Gunners held on to beat the Czech minnows but the England international playing the entirety of the showdown raised concerns.

Wiktor Nowak's late effort reduced the deficit and sparked a nervy conclusion, but Mikel Arteta's side held firm to earn an important win to maintain the unbeaten start in Europe. The Basque tactician emphasised his intent in the Champions League when he selected a full-strength side, just days after their hard-earned win over Liverpool.

Rice played throughout alongside Martin Zubimendi, while Ebere Eze, Mikel Merino and Gyokeres were afforded starting berths. But the inclusion of the Englishman sparked fresh fitness fears, with Carney picking up on the physical and psychological toll the game, appeared, to have on the 27-year-old.

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The TNT Sports pundit said: "Results, the table, 10 points from 12 games, hopefully they'll finish in the top bracket so they don't have to play that extra game.

"We'll be picky in the second-half because there's high expectations and these margins matter. Overall, they got the job done, especially after the Liverpool game, there was a lot of tired bodies out there, Declan Rice looked exhausted."

However, Arteta appeared to show little concern as he reiterated the desire within the Arsenal side to avenge their Champions League final defeat in May.

Speaking after the win in Prague, he said: "Always we need to value winning away in the Champions League. It is extremely difficult. Two very different halves.

"We should have had three or four goals in the first half but we didn't do it. Right at the start of the second half we were on the back foot, very sloppy and gave balls away. Then we had to suffer.

"A lot to learn. We should have scored more in the first half and if we didn't do that we had to go and do that in the second half.

"We made six changes but we know the quality of the players we have. Whether we were lacking something I don't know but I would have done the same thing [again].

"I value what the team has done now, it is 11 away games we played."

Rice has faced fitness concerns since before the World Cup. The midfielder was left out of the Group Stage match for the dead-rubber against Panama due to injury fears and workload management from Thomas Tuchel.

Last month, Arteta noted that they would have to keep a close eye on Rice's fitness and whether he would come close to suffering muscle injury. He admitted: "Yeah, we have to manage him because he's had a few issues since he came back from the World Cup. "Hopefully tomorrow he's available, and some others also are in doubt."