Arsenal endured a difficult evening on the south coast as they dropped two points on the road. Despite taking the lead through Ethan Nwaneri, the Gunners saw their lead cancelled out after William Saliba was deemed to have fouled Joao Pedro in the box after a clash of heads.

Mikel Arteta was naturally frustrated with the decision to give Brighton the call. Saliba can be seen on replays making contact with the ball before he makes contact with Joao Pedro.

The Arsenal manager was asked about the performance, his team's relationship with bookings from delays in play and also whether the performance and result would infer any transfer needs.

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You can read every word from the press conference below:

A game affected by a big decision with the penalty?

Well first of all on the game, a really tough place to come, I think we started the game well, first half scored a great goal. We didn’t really concede anything but in the second half we drop our standard level with the ball giving too many balls away, that never allowed us really to generate momentum and dominance in the game to control and go for the second goal.

That really hurt in the transition moment with Minteh, that comes a very disappointing decision.

Why did Ethan Nwaneri come off at half-time?

Yeah, he felt some muscular issue.

Nwaneri was booked at a corner, Timber missed the game through a suspension after taking too long to take a throw-in in one of the five yellows, is this something you need to get on top of.

Well, we can improve that certainly.

You described the penalty as ‘disappointing’ what do you make of it?

Well, I’ve never seen a decision like this in my career, I asked the boys if they have, and no one has seen this before. When you look at the incident, the player, Joao touching the ball then Saliba touching the ball, you can see contact there?

Did you expect that to be overturned?

If I expect it? I checked after three seconds they said they already checked.

That seems quick?

Seems quick.

Have you had an explanation from the officials?

No.

Would you like one?

No I asked Anthony and he said “Yeah we will have a look at it.”

Does it make it that much more disappointing when you drop points and that decision is made?

Yeah, there are two things, first the things that we can do better we must do better and control. Then obviously are all of the things that are not in our hands unfortunately and can have a huge impact in the game.

Its this exact point last season when you went on that big run, is it going to take something similar to win the title?

Well yes, but the run that we are in, especially with all the situations, illnesses and injuries, and players that we are missing I think the team deserves a lot of credit. It’s disappointing because its not how much we want it, the effort we put in today was mors about probably, the freshness and the quality we have to deliver in that second half to dominate the game much better, but I understand that as well to be fair.

On the illness, how close was Kai? How much did Martin put in to get on the bench?

Yeah, Kai tried but he was really very honest and said I cant even travel, I’m not feeling good at all, we tried yesterday to see if he could train and he tried he best and he wasn’t able to do that.

Martin, he didn’t train, he said ‘let me not train and see how I feel tomorrow’ and he did his best to be here because we know the numbers that we have.

How difficult is it to change in a game, as they’ve been able to get control

No, we ended the game better. In the last ten minutes or so, we had a feeling that we could generate something and be more on top. But it was a period that, it was uncomfortable, and we used some players in different positions that were not natural and not having the capacity to freshen it up, again that’s down to us and we can do better.

Does this performance show that you feel you might need something more in the market?

Well obviously, we cannot make a decision based on one performance or one day where a lot of circumstances, not only the players that were lost but the fact we had to take Ethan out, we could use Martin for only a limited time, hopefully on Tuesday we will be in a better position.

Nine shots is the lowest you’ve had, is that a creativity issue or a striker issue?

You can’t rely on just one player, I think the process in the second half especially we lacked certain things and its normal because the fluidity that we have in certain areas with the players that we have is not the same, but certainly its something we can do much better and that’s on us.

Do you think you deserved to win the game?

Well in the defensive I think that we did a lot of great things. With the ball we should have done better and without creating much, it was a really tight game. Not enough to win it and with the decision as well.