Footage circulated on social media showing football fans targeting Arsenal star Declan Rice with chants making reference to the England international's girlfriend

A number of football fans have shared their disgust at vile chants aimed at Declan Rice's girlfriend Lauren Fryer, calling for the offending fans to be handed bans.

England international Rice, 25, welcomed his first child with partner Lauren in 2022. The pair have largely stayed out of the public eye, though she was seen cheering on the midfielder and his team-mates at the World Cup in Qatar later that year.

Rice was part of the Arsenal team which beat Chelsea 5-0 in the Premier League on Tuesday night to extend their advantage at the top of the Premier League table. During the game, chants were heard from the Chelsea end, with Fryer the apparent target.

Football fans have come to her defence on social media, though, encouraging bans for those responsible. Fryer wiped her Instagram account in the light of recent abuse, but many have stuck up for her.

"We should understand that football players and their families are humans like us too," one fan wrote on social media. "Insecure people hating on someone who’s living her life," wrote another.

"Absolutely disgusting, have them banned from the stadium," was the verdict from a third. "Ban them immediately, fact he plays for our country is so disrespectful, yet alone to abuse his mrs who is already struggling," urged another.

Fryer, who is also 25, is Rice's childhood sweetheart. She has faced unkind comments on social media on more than one occasion, but things spilled into the stadium on Tuesday as Rice was targeted when he went over to take a corner in front of Blues fans.

Love Island star Liberty Poole was another to come to Fryer's defence. "I think she's beautiful this is crazy," Poole, who starred on season seven of the show, wrote on Instagram.

"What happened to celebrating different body types and embracing how we are all individually made. beauty standards these days are unrealistic and everyone's gone mad because of social media. I'm keep preaching about it till I die time for change this can't continue."

Rice, who joined Arsenal in a club record move from West Ham last summer, didn't let the vile chants put him off his game. The Gunners beat Chelsea 5-0, with their number 41 setting up Leandro Trossard's opener.

The win marked the first time all season that Arsenal have started with a midfield three of Rice, Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard, with Partey recently returning from injury. After the game, manager Mikel Arteta shed light on the options available to him in the middle of the park.

"I don’t know, but then we would have won every game because look at the run we are in, the amount of points we have already and we have missed Thomas, that’s true, since August and he’s a big player for us," the Spaniard said.

"But as well that has given the chance to all the players, to Declan to play as a six, to rediscover Declan as an eight, playing Kai [Havertz] as a nine, the contribution of [Jorginho], he has been absolutely phenomenal as well. And the team has resources, and it has to find different ways of winning and acting and interchanging the qualities. I’m really happy."