Mikel Arteta praises David Raya for vital saves in ‘heartstopping’ Arsenal victory

Mikel Arteta said his heart almost stopped before David Raya kept ­Arsenal’s title challenge on track with a stunning late save to deny 10‑man Chelsea a late equaliser at the Emirates Stadium.

Raya was in exceptional form ­during a crucial 2-1 win, making a series of excellent stops during a tense encounter, and the Spaniard was alert when a cross from Alejandro Garnacho threatened to drift inside his near post as full time approached. The goalkeeper pushed the ball wide, ensuring that goals from William Saliba and Jurriën Timber enabled Arsenal to restore their five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.

“David is one of our leaders and he’s a keeper that knows how to ­maintain his focus and decide a football match when you need it,” Arteta said. “Sometimes he doesn’t parti­cipate at all and then in one action you have to be there, and that’s very difficult to do.

“The save in the last action, it’s a cross [from Garnacho], it’s not a shot, but it ended up being an ­unbelievable shot. My heart almost stopped, but David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.”

Arteta, who said Declan Rice is a doubt for the trip to Brighton on Wednesday, felt that Arsenal did not manage the final period of the game. “It’s certainly something that we’ll discuss tomorrow because we have to improve it,” he said.

It promises to be a fraught end to the season for Arsenal, who have played a game more than City. “I’ll try to stay calm,” Arteta said. “When you see the other teams are winning games everybody’s suffering. The margins are so small, so it’s good.”

Chelsea, who have fallen out of the top five, conceded from two corners and could not recover from Pedro Neto picking up two yellow cards in the space of four minutes in the ­second half. They have picked up nine red cards in all competitions this season and Liam Rosenior wants to get to the bottom of his side’s discipline problem.

“As a group, me as the leader as well, we have to take more accountability for the decision-making in terms of our discipline and the goals we conceded,” the Chelsea head coach said.

Rosenior spoke about concentration issues and admitted to frustration with Neto and Enzo Fernández earning bookings for dissent. “We need to do something,” he said. “I need to speak to the coaching staff, the staff around the club, the players, because it’s not acceptable.”