Category Archives: Arsenal

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 2 – 0 Luton Town

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Arsenal (2) 2 Luton Town (0) 0
Premier League
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Wednesday, 3rd April 2024. Kick-off time: 7.30pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe; Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Declan Rice

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (24 mins), Daiki Hashioka (o.g., 43 mins)
Yellow Cards: Kai Havertz
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 59%

Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistant Referees: Marc Perry, Steve Meredith
Fourth Official: Simon Hooper
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Tim Robinson; AVAR Dan Robathan

Attendance: 60,262

Following last Sunday’s draw at the Etihad, it is of course imperative that we secure a victory against the Hatters tonight. Of course, our title rivals Manchester City are plying their trade against Aston Villa this evening, so we need to keep them at bay, and only a win will do!

A firm, yet casual start by the chaps tonight, and within a couple of minutes we were immediately on the attack as Kai Havertz surged through the middle of the park. Leandro Trossard made a good run into the penalty area but the pass from Kai Havertz was way too heavy and the opportunity disappeared into the ether.

Not deterred, we started to play well, both on and off the ball, finding our men easily and moving forward towards the visitors’ goal. Oleksandr Zinchenko received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and took a strong shot at goal, but Alfie Doughty blocked it, and foolishly, the visitors attempted to play out from the back, but they lost the ball quickly and a Kai Havertz shot was also blocked by a rather panicky Hatters defence.

We were pressurising the Luton defence, and attempting to find a way through somehow, and you could see a good pattern of play here tonight by our team. However, Ross Barkley played a great ball to send Jordan Clark away down the left wing. He raced towards our penalty area and then fired in a low ball looking for Andros Townsend, but Oleksandr Zinchenko read the danger well and cleared the ball.

After twenty-four minutes, we took a well-deserved lead when Emile Smith-Rowe capitalised on a mistake by Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu before neatly slotting a ball to Martin Ødegaard, who performed a clever one-two with Kai Havertz, before firing the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

The visitors appeared to spring back into life after our goal, with Andros Townsend causing one or two problems at the back for our defence. Thomas Kaminski made a really good save to keep out Emile Smith-Rowe’s curled effort inside the penalty area, but then the match was stopped briefly after a couple of Luton Town defenders went down to the ground injured, but after treatment, they continued on with the game.

Ben White did some clever work on the ball before passing it to Kai Havertz, whose left-footed shot was again saved by Thomas Kaminski, who correctly dived to his left in order to save the shot.

A couple of minutes before the half-time break, we grabbed a second goal when Emile Smith-Rowe took the ball to the by-line, slotted the ball across the face of the goal and the ball then appeared to come off a beleaguered Daiki Hashioka and into the net. Although there was four minutes injury time, nothing much happened and we went into the break two goals to the good.

We kicked off the second half and it was fairly obvious to everyone that we continued in the same vein as at the end of the first half; in control, looking for spaces and chinks in the Hatters’ armour.

Leandro Trossard tried to get himself to another good Emile Smith-Rowe ball into the penalty area, but Fred Onyedinma defended well and won the free-kick. Tahith Chong cynically brought down Reiss Nelson deep into the Luton Town half, but referee Craig Pawson waved play to carry on, amazingly.

Our captain fouled Jordan Clark twenty-five yards from our goal, but the corresponding free-kick came to nothing, fortunately.

The visitors were trying to constantly find a way through our defence, and on one occasion Leandro Trossard tracked back to stop Andros Townsend taking a shot at David Raya’s goal, and then Kai Havertz was booked as referee Craig Pawson deemed that he went down to the ground too easily in an attempt to win a free-kick.

Shortly afterwards, Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz were replaced by Declan Rice and Eddie Nketiah with about twenty minutes of the match remaining. Oleksandr Zinchenko neutralised a Luton Town cross from the left wing when he chested the ball down to David Raya perfectly.

With eighteen minutes of the game remaining, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Reiss Nelson were replaced by Gabriel Martinelli and Takehiro Tomiyasu in order to try and grab some more goals here tonight, and within minutes, Takehiro Tomiyasu took a good shot that curled just wide of the mark.

Jorginho replaced Emile Smith-Rowe with six minutes left on the clock to try and put more spark into the game.

After a Daiki Hashioka shot which was blocked by our defence, at the other end just minutes later, Thomas Kaminski managed to get down to his right hand side in order to turn a ball around the post from Jorginho, and as the match entered the four minutes injury time period, game management became the order of the day, and we simply coasted to a fairly pedestrian two-nil win here tonight, which more importantly means that we are top of the Premiership by one point over our nearest rivals Liverpool.

All in all, it was a very comfortable win for the boys, with very little pressure from the visitors, who surely have their own problems as the season ebbs away.

Everyone played well, everybody looked comfortable both on and off the ball, and in many ways the score was a bit flattering as we should really have got a couple more, but in the end of the day, we earned our three points which has taken us to the top of the Premiership tonight.

Although we never really got out of second gear, Mikel Arteta managed to rotate the squad well, and everyone got a run out before preparing for the Brighton and Hove Albion match on Saturday. Let’s hope that Bukayo Saka is fit and raring to go for that one. 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: Brighton and Hove Albion at the American Express Stadium on Saturday, 6th April 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

Remember Southampton – Complacency is Arsenal’s biggest threat

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There is no easy game in the Premier League, but to win the title you have to expect to be beating the likes of Luton Town.

The same could be said last season when we face Southampton at home and ended up drawing 3-3.

Southampton scored in the opening minute following a howler from Aaron Ramsdale, and Theo Walcott made it 2-nil with less than a quarter of an hour gone.

Having got back into the game through Gabriel Martinelli in the 20th minute, we then proceeded to go 2-behind again with less than half an hour to play. Goals in the 88th and 90th minute from Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka got us a point, but it was not enough in a tight title race.

Was it complacency? Did we come out thinking we only needed to turn up to win? Were we focusing too much on Manchester City 5 days later that we took the eye off the ball? Who knows.

To only have got 2 points from 2 games against bottom of the table Southampton was a big reason we did not win the league last year. And Arteta needs to use the experience as a reminder to the players today of the danger of Luton.

Luton Town are fighting for their lives to stay in the Premier League. It is between them and Nottingham Forest for that last relegation spot.

3 points in 9 games would not have you thinking “danger”, but in most of those 9 games they have had a chance to get something.

To start with, they have scored 15 goals in those 9 games. That is more than a lot of the teams above them.

Four of the six defeats came by a single goal, with their only really poor performances coming against Sheffield United and Liverpool.

It took Tottenham until the 86th minute to get ahead of them at the weekend, whilst Bournemouth scored their winner in the 83rd and Villa in the 89th. Today will certainly be one of those games that you will want to be staying until the end.

Ultimately, it we go out, play our usual high tempo aggressive game, we will come away from it with 3 points. But like with Southampton, we need to get the thought of “how many” out of our head and firstly just focus on winning.

Yes, this season could come down to goal difference, but for that to be a factor we need to get the 3 points first.

Get the win in the back, and then it is 8 to go.

UTA.

Keenos

Is 90 points the magic number?

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Morning! One thing I love when the games come at us thick and fast is just how little I need to plan what blogs go out and when.

It basically goes:

Match report (writing by the brilliant Steve)
My view on the last match
Pre-match blog
Match report
And so on….

I then schedule an opinion piece on something non-game related on those days when we have 3 days between games rather than two.

So Manchester City…

It was basically two heavyweight champions cautiously slugging it out, whilst being aware of the others knockout power.

We might have had just 28% of the possession, but we were playing rope-a-dope. We sat behind our solid defence, barely gave City a sniff, and then counter-punched when we got the chance.

Neither team really had a great chance.

David Raya made one top, top save whilst Arsenal played a few dangerous balls across the box that led to nothing.

Perhaps our best chance was one that never actually became a chance as Leandro Trossard found himself but failed to play in Gabriel Martinelli.

I have seen a bit of criticism for Trossard for not playing his teammate in, with some saying it would have led to a certain goal. But I do not think it was the easy pass and chance some are making out.

The only way the pass would have got to Martinelli would have been if it was played first time by Trossard, whilst he is striding forward at pace, on his weaker foot. He would have had to have instinctively played it in the hope / expectation that Martinelli had made up the ground on the other side of the pitch.

As soon as Trossard got his head up as he took a touch, the chance was gone.

Had he played the magic ball, I do not think Martinelli would have had the easy chance some think he would.

The Manchester City defender running back in the middle would have continued his running line towards the penalty spot rather than going towards Martinelli. by the time the ball had reached Gabi, the City defender would have made up the ground and reduced the angle, blocking off half of the goal.

It would have been a tough chance for Gabi, with a shot across the keeper likely to be blocked by the defender. His best chance would have been to then go hard at the near post and hope his power beats the keeper.

A draw probably suited everyone and no one at the same time. And I include Liverpool in that.

Mikel Arteta believes the magic number for this season will be 90 points. Before Sunday’s game, that would leave Arsenal needing to win 8, draw one and lose one to take us to 89. Liverpool the same. Manchester City would have needed to win 9 out of 10 to take them to 90.

The draw means that Manchester City now to win all 9 of their remaining games to reach that 90 figure (9 wins takes them to 91). Meanwhile, we need 8 wins and a draw to get to 90.

Liverpool are probably still in prime position, as 8 wins and a defeat takes them to 91.

I honestly can not see any team winning all 9 of their remaining games, and if they do they will probably secure a well deserved title.

Our longest winning run this season was 8 (ended up the draw on Saturday). Liverpool’s longest was 5 and Manchester City’s is 6. I expect every team to drop points in at least 1 game.

Liverpool dropping points in 1 game takes them to 91 at worst. For us it takes us to 89 and Manchester City to 88. And that is if the dropped point is a defeat.

It is going to be a tight old run in, with Liverpool still having to go to Manchester United, Everton, West Ham and Aston Villa.

Manchester City probably have the easiest run in, with a trip to Tottenham the only real danger. But after their failure to beat us, losing to Spurs and winning the rest will only leave them with 88, which will probably not be enough.

Meanwhile, we still need to go to both Tottenham and Manchester United, as well Wolves and Brighton. 2 tough aways and two tricky.

But we are getting too far ahead of ourselves. We need to focus on the next game. And tomorrow that is Luton.

All 3 teams are at home during this game week, with Liverpool facing Sheffield United and Manchester United against Aston Villa. I can not see any of the 3 teams dropping points…

Back tomorrow with a pre-match blog.

Keenos