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Rice urges Arsenal to 'block out the noise' in Premier League title bid

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Declan Rice insists Arsenal must focus purely on what they are able to control and "block out the noise" as they aim to win the Premier League title.

Arsenal were pegged back to a 1-1 draw by Brentford, with Keane Lewis-Potter cancelling out Noni Madueke's goal at the Gtech Community Stadium.

The Premier League now take a break for the FA Cup fourth round, but with Manchester City having won their last two games, the Gunners' lead at the summit has been cut to four points.

While the Opta supercomputer hands Arsenal an 85.8% chance of ending their wait for the league title, the pressure is growing on Mikel Arteta's team.

Rice, though, urged his team-mates to narrow their focus.

"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," Rice said, as reported by ESPN.

"The small details, the basics. This is a rollercoaster of a season. You can't be naive 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.

"We have to block out the outside noise. 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 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."

Of the 17 games in which Arsenal have scored first in the Premier League this season, Thursday's draw was just the second time they have failed to win, after their 3-2 loss to Manchester United in January.