‘We have to block out the outside noise’ – Declan Rice on the title race after Brentford draw | OneFootball

Declan Rice insists that Arsenal have to “block out the outside noise” as they look to win the Premier League title this season.

Arsenal’s lead at the top dropped from six points to four after Manchester City eased past Fulham and Brentford held Arsenal to a draw at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Rice believes that a draw against Brentford away from home is a good result for Arsenal.

“We have to block out the outside noise,” he said. “We have done that really well. People are going to talk up the title race and Arsenal but we have a really calm group.

“I’m not naïve 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.”

Arsenal went ahead in the match through Noni Madueke, but Keane Lewis-Potter’s header levelled it up. Both sides had big chances to win it, Arsenal through Gabriel Martinelli and Brentford through Igor Thiago. Rice gave his thoughts on the match.

“The game was split into different halves,” he added. “It was their first 20 minutes, we ended the first half strong, we started the second half amazingly well and they ended the half better than us. We suffocated a lot after the goal.

“In this journey you are never going to be at the level for 70 games of the season but you have to be at the best you can. The small details, the basics, like I say this is a rollercoaster of a season. You can’t be naïve to think this is going to be easy. We are playing against the best teams week in, week out. We have to keep pushing and believing in ourselves, controlling the controllable.”