Press conference

Arteta on the draw, Ramsdale and Lokonga

Sambi Lokonga
Sambi Lokonga

Mikel Arteta said a point was a much as we deserved against Brighton, at a sodden Amex Stadium on Sunday.

Read on for a full transcript of his post-match conference

 

on the result...

I think it's a point gained because I don’t think we deserved anything more than that. If we did deserve that point it’s because we defended really well the last 15/20 minutes. But in general we never felt in control of the game, we struggled to break the press and get good sequences of passes in the final third. They made it really tough for us.

 

on the frustration at failing to break Brighton down...

Yes, because the way they pressed if we had made better decisions with the ball there were bigger spaces to attack and we had a real threat to do that. But we weren’t bright enough to do that and we didn’t show enough quality on those duels to break that press and then become really dangerous in open spaces.

 

on if we'd been missing a character like Aaron Ramsdale...

I don’t know. The way we decided to recruit Aaron was [after] going through a big process where we wanted to know a lot about his personality, his character, the way he can handle playing under pressure at a big club. He is showing he is ready to do that and I’m really happy with his performances and what he is bringing. That’s one of the reasons I think defensively we have been really difficult to concede goals.

 

on Ben White and Gabriel...

Yeah [I'm impressed] because they've never played together and because they have struggled a little bit with the language and they didn't have any time to work together in pre-season either. They're getting a really good connection, good chemistry, and I think their qualities match and complement each other really, really well. I think both of them today were terrific.

 

on Sambi Lokonga's performance...

I think he did really well. I think he had one of the best performances from the players on the pitch. He shows a lot of character and all the time good positions. I think his defensive work and understanding is getting better. It was a really difficult game because it was all the time one v one duels all over the pitch and it's not the game that really suits him the most, but I think under the circumstances, he did really well.

 

on Bukayo Saka's injury...

He's fine. He got a knock but he should be fine.

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