Jurrien Timber warns Arsenal teammates over ‘unnecessary’ mistake vs Chelsea | Football

Jurrien Timber has warned his Arsenal teammates they cannot afford to repeat the ‘unnecessary mistake’ they made in yesterday’s win over Chelsea if they hope to end a 22-year wait to be crowned Premier League champions.

The Gunners opened up a five point lead at the top over Manchester City, albeit having played a game more, following Sunday’s fraught win over 10-man Chelsea.

Timber’s 66th minute header from Declan Rice’s corner put Mikel Arteta’s side on course for three points on Sunday and their position was strengthened by the sending off of Pedro Neto shortly afterwards.

Despite that advantage, the closing stages were anything but comfortable with David Raya forced to make a superb save to prevent Alejandro Garnacho from equalising, before Liam Delap’s effort was ruled out for off-side.

Arsenal have shown a propensity to shoot themselves in the foot in recent weeks, particularly in a damaging 2-2 draw at Wolves, while they also gave up leads in the recent games against Brentford and Manchester United.

‘You feel it, especially at the end,” said Timber after Arsenal clung on for a much-needed win.

‘We stopped playing a bit [against Chelsea], which was unnecessary – especially with a man up. It’s something we need to work on, talk about as well.

‘It happened a couple of times this season already. We put so much effort into the game, especially in the first half, and you have to go up 1-0 or 2-0, but these things happen – especially like a good team against Chelsea.

‘It’s part of the game, you have to understand what happens in the moment. The energy within the players and the crowd, the anxiety. It’s something we need to address and talk about.’

But Timber says Arsenal cannot start thinking that the title is any closer despite there being nine games to go.

‘I heard it was nine games to go but it still feels so far off because we’re playing in Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup,’ he added.

‘Game by game. If we look to far ahead, it becomes a bit a bit too much.’

Arteta, meanwhile, admitted his ‘heart almost stopped’ as Arsenal rode their luck in the closing stages.

The Arsenal boss said: ‘The save that he (Raya) made in the last action, from what ended up being an unbelievable shot, I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped. But David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.

‘I try to stay calm, but obviously, we weren’t getting the dominance and the sequences of play that we wanted and would expect against 10 men.

‘You have to navigate through that, and it’s a big part of the game. Everybody’s suffering because the margins are so small.’

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