Arsenal must block out noise in ‘roller-coaster’ Premier League title race: Declan Rice
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Referee John Brooks showing a yellow card to Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice during the 1-1 English Premier League draw with Brentford at the Brentford Community Stadium in London on Feb 12, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON – Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said his side cannot be distracted by talk of Manchester City closing in at the top of the English Premier League after the Gunners were held 1-1 at Brentford on Feb 12.
City are now just four points behind Mikel Arteta’s men and have home advantage when the sides meet in April.
Arsenal are aiming to end a 22-year wait to win the title and appeared to be cruising towards success when they moved nine points clear on Feb 7.
However, City’s late fightback to snatch a 2-1 victory at Liverpool
Pep Guardiola’s men maintained their momentum by beating Fulham 3-0
Noni Madueke gave the visitors the lead in west London in the 61st minute, but Brentford hit back through Keane Lewis-Potter and were unfortunate not to claim full points in the final 20 minutes.
“This is a roller coaster of a season. You can’t be naive to think this is going to be easy,” said England international Rice.
“We are playing against the best teams week in, week out. We have to keep pushing and believing in ourselves, controlling the controllable.
“We have to block out the outside noise. We have done that really well. People are going to talk up the title race, but we have a really calm group.
“I’m not naive to think Brentford are a pushover. They are one of the best teams in the league and their recent form shows that. It’s a point gained in our journey, but we wanted to win the game.”
Arteta was frustrated at how his side let control of the game get away from them after a positive start to the second half.
“We lacked composure to maintain the ball better, to play in the right areas. We started to give a lot of unnecessary free kicks away,” said the Spaniard.
Arsenal’s strength from set pieces has played a huge role in putting them into pole position for the title.
But they struggled to cope with Brentford’s own prowess from dead balls.
The equaliser arrived from one of Michael Kayode’s long throws propelled into the box, which Sepp van den Berg flicked on for Lewis-Potter to head home in the 71st minute.
“They are really good at it, so credit to them as well,” Arteta said.
“They drag you into a game where it’s like a casino. Anything can happen and something really bad can happen.”
Arsenal had taken the lead in the 61st minute through Madueke, who soared above Rico Henry and nodded Piero Hincapie’s ball back across goal and into the net.
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, a member of the Invincibles who won the club’s last league title in 2004, feels the Gunners are still in pole position.
He said on TNT Sports: “That’s what people were shouting at me as I was coming off the pitch, ‘Man City are coming to get you’, but at the end of the day, Arsenal are four points clear.
“You get knocked down, you get up again. Let’s see who the fighters are and let’s see who is going to win this. They could have put down a big marker if they won the match, but it never looked like that was going to be the case.”
Fellow former England international Peter Crouch added: “What Man City have got is the know-how and the recent history behind them. That can lead to nervous tensions around the stadium, certainly around the back end of the season.
“Having someone like Man City and Pep behind you, you are always going to be looking over your shoulder. But you would much rather be in Arsenal’s position.”
Brentford are seventh on 40 points, four behind fifth-placed Chelsea and remain on course to qualify for European football for the first time.
Their coach Keith Andrew told reporters: “I’m not going to speak about that. There are 12 games left, but I do promise you we are going to attack every single one of them... to see how much we can achieve this year.” AFP, REUTERS
