Declan Rice has reiterated that there is a long way to go in the Premier League title race and says Arsenal have to focus on themselves. The Gunners sit six points behind Liverpool in the battle to reach the top-flight summit but the gap could extend to nine points - if the Reds beat Everton on Wednesday.

The North London club, who utilised their free weekend after their FA Cup third round exit to Manchester United with a warm weather training camp in Dubai, take on strugglers Leicester City at 12:30pm on Saturday (February 15) hoping that Liverpool's Merseyside rivals dent their title hopes.

Last week's Carabao Cup semi-final exit leaves Arsenal's only other competition as the Champions League as they await their round of 16 opponents. Under Arne Slot, Liverpool have been near perfect, suffering just four defeats in all competitions so far during the Dutchman's tenure.

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With Bukayo Saka on the comeback trail and a good run of form, Arsenal will be hopeful that they can keep pace with Liverpool until the final day of the season, with Rice also making reference to recent comments made my Mikel Arteta.

"There's still really a long way to go, we know what we want to achieve and look, the manager said in the press conference the other week, 'no matter what, we can only worry about ourselves'" said Rice.

"But at the end of the season, we will be there. We can only keep believing in what we believe in, what we're working on and have full trust in the manager, our players, everyone around us and we'll achieve great things.

"It's down to us to get over the line and that's the next steps, [we have] big things coming up but we need to stay positive and keep going."

Liverpool, meanwhile, face a gruelling fixture schedule with five fixtures in 15 days including the rescheduled trip to Villa Park to face Aston Villa following the Reds progression into the Carabao Cup final, next month.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Wednesday's meeting with their local rivals is the biggest game of the season, with not only bragging rights at stake. The 47-year-old has claimed that if the Reds pick up a win in the final derby at Goodison Park, it will boost their title aspirations and land a psychological blow to their North London rivals - who are still due to visit Anfield in May.

"This could be a really special season for Liverpool, they've been in this situation where four trophies are available twice in the last three or four years," he said. "They come away with two Carabao Cups and an FA Cup. They didn't win the big ones.

"The most important thing is to win the big trophies, the Premier League and Champions League, they're in a great position in the final - they'll go into that as favourites. This has the capabilities to be a great season, when you look next week in the Premier League, that's the biggest game of the season.

"Not because it's Everton, Liverpool have been talking about a game-in-hand for about two months. The game-in-hand and the gap over Arsenal, if Liverpool win that they've almost got one-hand on the trophy, a nine-point lead, with 13 or 14 games to go is a huge lead with the form that Liverpool are in.

"The final to come and if they win next week psychologically it's a boost for Liverpool, but also what it would do to Arsenal. I don't think many people at Arsenal would believe they could pull that back, it's a huge lead at this stage of the season."