Declan Rice and Albert Stuivenberg were involved in a heated exchange during the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg victory over Chelsea on Wednesday night.
Mikel Arteta with Albert Stuivenberg(Image: )
Mikel Arteta says Declan Rice and Albert Stuivenberg have now put the tunnel destruction behind them.
The Arsenal midfielder and Arteta’s right-hand man were involved in a heated exchange during the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final win over Chelsea on Wednesday night.
Footage showed Rice visibly upset with Stuivenberg at half-time and Gabriel Magalhaes was forced to intervene in an attempt to calm things down.
Arteta downplayed the incident and said the couple had already resolved the issue when he found out. He said: “Everything fixed, everything good. The good thing is that when I found out the problem was already solved, so that’s very good.”
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Stuivenberg has been part of Arteta’s coaching staff since 2019 and has played an integral role in Arsenal’s growth in recent seasons.
The two met while the coach was doing his coaching courses at the Welsh National Football Development Centre, towards the end of his playing career.
Arteta lifted the lid on their relationship, saying: “It’s the chemistry you feel with the person.
“Right away the first time we met and started talking about possibly working together, we had good energy, we had a good feeling about it.
“He is an excellent person. Someone who is very easy to work with, very open and very experienced. He is very good at dealing with a lot of people and departments because he has enormous experience and the social skills to do it.
“And then someone obviously at the tactical, technical and methodological level, is the best. That’s why he’s been with us for a long time and I love having him on the team.
“He’s really good, the way he was raised, educated, the experience he has with other coaches as well. Very rich, he brings other ideas and other ways of thinking too.
“And he is someone who has a very clear opinion about what he wants, he is very good at conveying that. And he is someone very, very valuable on the team.”