Mikel Arteta said David Raya’s heroics brought his heart ‘back to life’ as Arsenal fended off Chelsea to go five points clear at the top.
William Saliba’s header was cancelled out by a Piero Hincapie own goal before half-time, but Jurrien Timber struck from Declan Rice’s corner in the 66th minute to seal victory.
It was not without a nervy finale, though, as goalkeeper Raya pulling off a series of solid stops, including a stunning save to deny Alejandro Garnacho’s cross from going into the net in injury time.
The Blues earlier had Pedro Neto sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a challenge on Gabriel Martinelli.
Arteta said: ‘He (Raya) is a keeper that knows how to maintain his focus and decide a football match when you need it because sometimes he doesn’t participate at all, and then in one action, you have to be there, and that’s very, very difficult to do.
‘The save that he made it in the last action… it’s a cross, not a shot but he ended up with an unbelievable save.
David Raya celebrates during the win over Chelsea that kept Arsenal five points clear at the top
‘I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.’
Both of Arsenal’s goals came from corners, taking their tally to 16 such goals this season.
It equals the most by any side in a single Premier League campaign, alongside Oldham in 1992-93, West Brom in 2016-17, and the Gunners themselves in 2023-24.
On their set-piece prowess, Arteta said: ‘Yeah, but every team to be fair, look where they are in terms of the amount of goals that they score (from set-pieces).
‘We haven’t scored set-pieces for a few weeks now, but we scored so many in open play.
‘Today was an option to score from this kind of situation. We’ve done it so well, and we conceded (from a set-piece) as well.’
