Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice appeared in a press statement following the 1-1 draw against Brentford in the 26th round of the English Premier League.

The English star said: "The match was divided into two different halves. The first 20 minutes were theirs. We finished the first half strongly and started the second half brilliantly, but they ended the half better than us. Our performance declined significantly after the goal."

He added: "In this journey, you won't be at your best throughout all 70 games of the season, but you have to be at your best... the small details, the basics, as I said, this is a season full of ups and downs. You can't be naive and think it will be easy; we're playing against the best teams week after week. We have to keep pushing, believe in ourselves, and focus on what we can control."

He continued: "What we need to do is ignore the external noise, we've done that quite well. People will talk about the title race and Arsenal, but we have a very calm team."

He concluded: "I am not naive to think that Brentford is an easy team. They are one of the best teams in the league, and their recent form is clear evidence of that. It's a point we earned on our journey, but we wanted to win the match."