After his side picked up a point in a 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, Mikel Arteta had mixed emotions.

The coach was delighted to come home with a result and a solid performance from a stadium where the hosts were only beaten once in the league all season. However, he led through a well-taken shot from Ethan Nwaneri and saw the win squandered by Joao Pedro. The second-half penalty wasn’t what anyone wanted.

Mikel feels the departure of the 17-year-old goalscorer at half-time affected our performance, but was still pleased with the work rate and commitment of his players, who persevered until the end, albeit in vain.

“I’m always disappointed when you don’t win the game, but it’s really tough, they have a good team,” Mikel said. “We started the game well and controlled it in a lot of ways without really being too present with the ball, but we scored a nice goal and didn’t concede anything at all.”

“Then in the second half we had to make a change for Ethan because he was injured, adjust a few things, and then we didn’t maintain the level with the ball, especially a lot of simple things we have to do better.” We have it not done.

“It allowed us to have some dominance and dynamism and play in the right areas and the game was open without really conceding much, apart from the chance with Minteh, which is disappointing and then comes the decision that “Obviously changed the course of the game and it’s really frustrating.”

Mikel was again forced into a defensive restructure, with Thomas Partey moving into the back line to cover for the suspended Jurrien Timber, but despite the constant personnel changes in the back four, our unit was solid throughout and David Raya remained unfazed most of the way .

That pleased the manager, who has no fault with the performance of his side as they continue to fight for the title on four fronts, and with Newcastle United having a great chance of reaching the final at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, he hopes we do get back on your feet in style.

On our defensive solidity, he added: “It shows the attitude, the commitment of the defensive habits and how we apply them.” I was phenomenal again – it wasn’t enough to win and we were missing something with the ball today, I understand that , because we are missing very important players who are crucial for our flexibility – that is disappointing because we have to win the games.

“We play in different competitions every three days and have to deal with a lot of problems in the squad, but the boys really want it.

“We keep going and on Tuesday we have a beautiful game, a semi-final, a beautiful game in front of our eyes, so bring the energy back and get going.”