Jurrien Timber insists Arsenal will address the anxiety problems which are threatening to derail their Premier League title bid.
Arsenal closed out a 2-1 win against Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday to restore their five-point advantage over Manchester City at the top of the table.
However, Chelsea played the final 20 minutes with 10 players after Pedro Neto was dismissed, and Arsenal rode their luck to secure all three points, with David Raya producing a fine save to stop Alejandro Garnacho from scoring in stoppage time. Liam Delap also had a late leveller ruled out for offside inside a nervous Emirates Stadium.
And Timber, who scored the decisive goal for Arsenal, admitted: “You feel it, especially at the end. We stopped playing, which was unnecessary, especially when we had a man up.
“It’s something we need to work on, and talk about as well. It has happened a couple of times this season already. We got through it before but there have been couple of times we didn’t.
“It is part of the game, the energy within the players, the crowd, the anxiety. It’s something we need to address and talk about, but we handled it well today.”
Arsenal will travel to Brighton on Wednesday as they enter the final nine matches of a campaign they hope will end their 22-year wait for the title.
Mikel Arteta’s side are still fighting on all four fronts with a Carabao Cup final against Manchester City to come this month. They are also through to the last 16 of both the Champions League and the FA Cup.
“From the beginning of the season every performance and every three points count,” added Timber.
“At the same time, I heard it is just nine games to go, but it feels like we are still so far off because we are playing in the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
“There are so many games to play, and if we look too far ahead it becomes a bit too much. So for now, we recover and look at Brighton.”
