Luton Town (1) 3 Arsenal (2) 4
Premier League
Kenilworth Road, 1 Maple Rd East, Luton LU4 8AW
Tuesday, 5th December 2023. Kick-off time: 8.15pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jakob Kiwior; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale; Eddie Nketiah, Cédric Soares, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Reuell Walters.
Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (20 mins), Gabriel Jesus (45 mins), Kai Havertz (60 mins), Declan Rice (90+7 mins)
Yellow Cards: Gabriel Jesus
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 67%
Referee: Sam Barrott
Assistant Referees: Harry Lennard, Nick Hopton
Fourth Official: Darren Bond
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Lee Betts
Attendance: c.11,500
For tonight’s game, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard have been dropped to the substitute’s bench as Jakub Kiwior, Ben White and Kai Havertz come in. Unfortunately, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Jurrien Timber remain unavailable for selection due to their respective injuries. On a congratulatory note, Bukayo Saka is set to make his two hundredth appearance for Arsenal in all competitions, at Kenilworth Road this evening. Aged 22 years and 91 days, he would become the second youngest English player to reach the milestone for Arsenal, bettered only by the legendary Cliff Bastin back in 1934.
We kicked off proceedings here at Kenilworth Road on a cold December evening, with both sets of players moving at quite a fast pace indeed. Gabriel kicked a ball forward extremely strongly, but the Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski gathered up the ball just before Gabriel Jesus could get to it. Gabriel Martinelli went to the floor following a bad tackle from Teden Mengi; he carried on, but it appeared that he had problems with his back. The home side were extremely physical in going about their business, with several of our players being badly fouled within the first ten minutes of the game. The physicality of the general nature of the match meant that there was no real chances in the first fifteen minutes of the game, as our boys were trying to find a way through the home side’s close marking style of play. However, after twenty minutes of play, we finally found a breakthrough when a poor Luton back pass saw goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski clear the ball into touch, but it bounced back off the advertising hoardings; Gabriel Jesus took a quick throw-in, finding Bukayo Saka who pulled it back and Gabriel Martinelli simply guided it into the bottom corner, just inside the post. Sadly our lead didn’t last too long, as four minutes later, Gabriel Osho equalised with a header from a corner. Shortly afterwards, Gabriel Jesus nearly restored our lead, when Martin Ødegaard, surrounded by Luton players, still managed to play it through to Gabriel Jesus who took a touch and quickly fired the ball at the goal, but the goalkeeper got a hand to it, and sent it behind for a corner, which came to nothing. Gabriel Jesus, on the left of the Luton penalty area, found a route to goal blocked so he passed a neat ball to Gabriel Martinelli and although it was a great strike, which was heading for the top corner, incidentally, goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski athletically got to the ball and clawed it away. So close. Declan Rice passed a lovely ball into the path of Bukayo Saka, whose left-footed shot from the right hand side of the penalty area was saved again by the goalie as it was heading for the top left corner of the net. Right on the stroke of half-time, we grabbed our second goal of the evening when Bukayo Saka released Ben White out on the right wing, and he quickly crossed the ball into the the middle of the penalty area, finding Gabriel Jesus, who simply nodded it into the net from close range; shortly afterwards our goalscorer received a yellow card for a silly tackle, but despite plenty of furious play from both teams in the five minutes injury time, we went into the break the better off of the two sides by the odd goal in three.
The home side started the second half in earnest, and this half had started in exactly the same way as the first ended, fiercely competitive. Four minutes after the restart, the home side scored the equaliser in the same manner as the first, courtesy of Elijah Adebayo. We immediately came back at them, with two good attempts by Bukayo Saka and Jakob Kiwior and after an excellent Kai Havertz header which just went over the crossbar, Ross Barkley scored the home side’s third goal with a left-footed shot from thje left side of the goal. However, on the hour, Luton had a throw-in, lost the ball and suddenly we sprang into life. The ball was played into the path of Gabriel Jesus and he slotted the ball towards the direction of Kai Havertz, who got there ahead of goalie Thomas Kaminski to steer it into the goal for our third of the evening. A few minutes later, Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel Martinelli made way for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard and suddenly both sides were more competitive than ever. Our captain put a fierce shot into the Luton goal, which was saved well by the goalie with fifteen minutes of the game remaining, and a couple of minutes later, after some super work by Bukayo Saka out on the right wing, he passed the ball to Leandro Trossard, who disappointingly blasted the ball over the bar from close range. We had yet another penalty appeal turned down by VAR, and then a superb Ben White cross again found the head of Kai Havertz whose header went narrowly wide of the left-hand post. With four minutes of the match remaining, some clever passing play found Leandro Trossard, whose right-footed shot went narrowly wide of the post. In the six minutes injury time, there was some extremely strong play from both sides, facing some nervous defenders, but right at the death, just when everythjing pointed to a draw, Declan Rice headed the ball into the back of the net past Thomas Kaminski from captain Martin Ødegaard’s cross from outside the penalty area! Unbelievable!
What an ending! What a team! Time just seemed to stand still at the end of the game as Declan Rice’s header went into the back of the net. A superb performance from the boys, they showed plenty of guts and fortitude, even at times when things looked a bit dodgy out there. They never gave up, kept going, right until the final whistle. And the icing on the cake is that we are five points ahead of Liverpool tonight, which is magnificent. Well done, chaps!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday, 9th December at 5.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
How does VAR not give us a penalty in that game. Two calls in the same move, the foul on Saka and Gabriel being pulled down in the box by his arm. Two clear penalty chances and none given. I believe it’s only a matter of time before an owner takes the PGMOL to court and gets the game replayed.
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