Declan Rice has urged Arsenal to stay focused and ignore outside distractions in the Premier League title race after the Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw at Brentford on Thursday.

With Manchester City now just four points behind and holding home advantage when the sides meet in April, Rice emphasized the importance of controlling what the team can and blocking out external noise.

“This is a rollercoaster of a season. You can’t be naive to think this is going to be easy,” the England international said. “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.”

Noni Madueke had given Arsenal the lead in west London, but Keane Lewis-Potter equalized, and Brentford came close to snatching all three points in the closing stages.

Mikel Arteta expressed frustration at how Arsenal let control slip 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,” Arteta said.

Set-piece strength has been key to Arsenal’s title push, but they struggled to contain Brentford’s proficiency from dead-ball situations. The equalizer came from one of Michael Kayode’s long throws, flicked on by Sepp van den Berg for Lewis-Potter to head home.

“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!”