Arteta lauds Lokonga's positioning, character

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has lauded Albert Sambi Lokonga for his performance in the 0-0 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Saturday.

The Democratic Republic of Congo prospect partnered Thomas Partey in the Gunners midfield, deputizing for Granit Xhaka who was not available owing to an injury sustained in the 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

The Spanish tactician believes the youngster is developing and despite playing against a good team, he did well.

"I think he did really well. I think he had one of the best performances from the players on the pitch," Arteta told Arsenal's official portal.

"He shows a lot of character and is always in 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."

The former midfielder insists his charges deserved a point from the match, but still believes they could have claimed the victory had they capitalised on the chances created.

"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," Arteta continued.

"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... 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."

Saturday's draw took the Gunners to the ninth position on the table with 10 points, pending Sunday's results.