Declan Rice admitted that he was inspired by David Beckham when scoring from 30 yards to kickstart our comeback during our 2-2 draw against Chelsea.
Our midfielder pounced on a loose pass from Blues keeper Robert Sanchez to fire first-time into the net from long range with 13 minutes to go, which paved the way for Leandro Trossard to equalise six minutes later and salvage a point from Stamford Bridge.
And he believes that watching the former England captain in action the previous night may have played a part in him scoring such a spectacular strike.
“Everyone’s been talking about this Beckham documentary, and I watched it for the first time last night,” he admitted post-match. “The first couple of clips are the game against Wimbledon where he scored from the halfway line and I took a lot of belief from that.
“I was just thinking that it was bizarre that I watched it last night, and then obviously today taking that shot first time and scoring. It was a special goal to kickstart our comeback, you’ve got to keep shooting - if you shoot, you score!
“In a player’s mind, you get a split second to make a decision. It’s the quickest thing that you have to do; you've got to think whether you pass the ball, Leo was free in front of me, or you go for goal yourself. I’ve just watched it back, it was a great finish so I was happy with that.”
When it comes to the result though, Declan isn’t quite so satisfied as he feels that we could have performed much better in the opening 45 minutes to prevent us from going into the break behind.
However, while we had to settle for a draw, he thinks the circumstances it arrived it just further highlights the strength of character running right through the squad, which has led to us starting the season with a nine-game unbeaten run.
Giving an insight into the mood in the dressing room, he added: “It’s a bitter feeling to be honest, because if we know if we did in the second half what we did in first, we would have won the game.
“In football, things throw out surprises and in the first half, we weren’t as good as we wanted to be. In the second half, I feel like we showed that character again like we did against Man City, and to get the point in the end was a really important result.
“[Being 2-0 down] is tough, it’s really tough. I think you always want to go into games thinking that you’ll get three points, but from the way we came back from 2-0 down away from home, the Chelsea fans and players were really up for it, we showed that fight and character.
“Even though we didn’t win, there are positives to be taken there. The mentality is there, the belief is there that we don’t want to get beaten, and being the best that we can.”
Watch the full interview with Declan by pressing play above
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