Arsenal reject offer for 23-year-old as Mikel Arteta wants to keep him due to lack of cover

Arsenal have rejected an offer for 23-year-old midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga from Monaco.

Lokonga is finding it difficult to make it into the Arsenal team at the moment due to the excellent form of Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.

The Belgian midfielder will undoubtedly be frustrated at the lack of game time, but his performances when playing haven’t been good enough to shift Xhaka and Partey out of the team.

However, Mikel Arteta still needs Lokonga as cover and competition, and Arsenal have now rejected a loan offer from Monaco for the midfielder, according to the Daily Mail.

Mohammed Elneny’s recent injury is another factor at play in this deal. Without Elneny, Arsenal have a severe lack of cover in this position and offloading Lokonga is only going to make things more difficult.

Lokonga has a bright future ahead of him but the lack of game time could halt his development. A loan move could be ideal for Lokonga, but Arsenal would have to bring in one or two new midfielders before it would make sense to allow him to leave the club on a temporary basis.

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