Ian Wright 'nervous' ahead of Brighton clash as he expresses major concerns for 'jittery' Arsenal

The Gunners struck first when William Saliba nodded home from a corner, but the teams went into the half-time break tied due to an unfortunate own goal by Piero Hincapie. Jurrien Timber ultimately clinched the win with a 66th-minute header, though it was far from a comfortable finish for the hosts. Arsenal had to weather a chaotic final stretch, surviving a Liam Delap equaliser that was correctly ruled out for offside. Wright pointed out that the away side continued to heavily test David Raya down the stretch, even after being reduced to 10 men following Pedro Neto's dismissal for a second yellow card.

Speaking on Premier League Productions, Arsenal legend Wright did not hold back in his assessment of the closing stages of the match. He said: "Chelsea, once they went down to 10 men, they started to play. It was worrying. Arsenal showing those nerves, those jittery nerves at the latter stages of games, they need to take the opportunities earlier on so they can relax at this stage. They have to just win now, especially the home games. It's not going to be something that instills you with loads of confidence but it's a win."

The former England forward is particularly concerned about the next fixture against Brighton, fearing that the same issues will resurface. He expressed his growing anxiety, stating: "We're seeing in the second half of games, you can get at Arsenal. Chelsea had 10 men there, it would be nice to find out what's happening to Arsenal in the second half. It comes down to 'you get the job done' and I'm happy the job is done, but I'm going to be nervous for the next game because I'm seeing that again in the second half."

Adding to Wright's frustration was a controversial VAR decision that went Arsenal’s way when the ball appeared to hit Declan Rice’s arm in the box. Wright confessed he was shocked that a penalty was not awarded to the Blues, noting that Rice appeared to be holding Joao Pedro at the time. "Decs is actually holding him. His arm's up there and now it moves up. When I saw that I thought they're going to give a pen. But then you don't know what they're going to do up there. You look at the pen that Man United got today, I'm thinking that's definitely a penalty."

The Premier League Match Centre clarified the incident via a social media statement, defending the referee's decision to play on. They explained: "The referee's call of no penalty was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed there was no punishable handball offence with Rice challenging an opponent as the ball hit his arm." Regardless of the explanation, it was another moment that left the Emirates crowd - and Wright - feeling incredibly uneasy about the lack of control being exerted by the league leaders.

Mikel Arteta attempted to use the memory of his side's dominant 4-1 triumph in the north London derby against Tottenham to motivate his players at half-time, though the second-half performance did not quite live up to that standard. The Spaniard revealed his dressing-room message after the final whistle, saying: "We started the game so well, the first half was very, very dominant. I think the margin, the scoreline, should have been bigger. But we were 1-1 [at half-time]. Game on. I reminded them that we were in the exact same position against Spurs seven days ago in that dressing room. I said, ‘Look what happened in the second half - so we're going to do it again’. But probably we're going to have to go through some difficult patches to earn the right to win the game. We certainly did that."

In the final moments, Arsenal relied on Raya to bail them out, with the goalkeeper making a sensational save to stop an Alejandro Garnacho cross from creeping into the far corner. Arteta admitted that the goalkeeper’s intervention was a lifesaver for his own stress levels. He 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 in the last action... it's a cross, not a shot, but he ended up with an unbelievable save. I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David's hand was there to bring it back to life."