The result leaves the Gunners four points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
Rice said afterwards, “We weren’t naive to think that this was going to be a pushover.
“They’re an amazing team, they’re seventh in the league and Keith Andrews has got them playing really, really well. They're so effective at how they play, and we prepared for that. We knew what was coming.
“It might be a valuable point towards the end. The only thing we can do is just keep worrying about ourselves like we’ve been doing. We’ve been on an amazing run this season, the performances have been incredible. If you look at the amount of games we’ve played and how many we’ve won, we’ve lost three in all competitions all season.
“So let’s take the positives, keep going, keep pushing, keep sticking together. Everyone’s needed on this road to the end. There’s a long way to go but we’re positive.”
Rice also reflected: “It was a really tough game. They probably had the first 20 minutes, we then probably had the next 25 and ended the first half really well. Then we started the second half really well, got the goal which was fully deserved, and then they probably had the last 25 minutes. So it was split into different stages, and could have probably gone either way at the end.
“We really wanted to win, we wanted to stamp our authority on it, but in the end we have to take the point and move forward.
“We have to keep going. We’ve played a lot of games this season, and we’ve got to keep staying mentally refreshed, physically refreshed. Now we move on to the next game, so got to keep going.”