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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

No more distractions, time to focus on The Arsenal

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That is the distractions out the way. Now to focus on the Arsenal.

We have 12 games left this season. Maybe 15. We are the in-form team in Europe. Players are returning to injury. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves and see where we end up.

Yes, we have some fixture congestion. But you can not be in the fight for multiple trophies at the business end of the season without it. If you do not want fixture congestion, then you are better off supporting someone like Spurs who are never in the race for trophies.

I will be delighted if we end up playing all 15 potential games we have left this season. That will mean we have got to the Champions League final at Wembley.

Teams these days have big squads, with 20 international players. It is down to the manager how he rests and rotates to keep players fresh.

Liverpool also potentially have 15 games left, and we are at the stage of the Europa League that Klopp will begin to take it more seriously – it is the only trophy Klopp has not won with Liverpool and he would not want his final season to end with just a League Cup.

Manchester City potentially have 17 games still play, with them still in the FA Cup. So fixture congestion really is not an excuse for any team (although I imagine Klopp will use it as an excuse).

Up first is Manchester City. Probably the hardest fixture to have after the international break. The positive from our point of view is that all of our players got through international duty without injury, even Declan Rice who played 180 minutes (was this Southgate’s revenge for Saka pulling out / Ben White situation?).

Meanwhile, they saw Kyle Walker limp off against Brazil and John Stones pull up injured in the opening minutes of Belgium. It is unclear the status of both but their worst case scenarios is their season could be over.

Walker went off with a hamstring injury. If it is just a twinge, it could be a couple of days (although if his muscles are on the brink, it is only a matter until his hamstring goes properly). If he has pulled it, that is 6-8 weeks out. Season pretty much over.

The way John Stones knee collapsed could mean it is a serious injury. The worst are always those that happen when an opponent is nowhere near. I would not be surprised if is a ligament injury and his season is over. It should not harm City as they have about a dozen centre backs that they paid £50m+ for…

I have enjoyed the conspiracy theories that both players hobbled off within 10 minutes as some sort of ploy to get out of international duty. Like England do not have their own physios and doctors who would have been able to assess straight away if they were “faking”.

Back to Arsenal. Arteta has had around a dozen or so senior players to work with this last week (they did get a few days off based on Ben White playing Uno on the beach!).

Of the 11 who have been away, 10 were in teams who played yesterday so today. With most of those playing at home, they probably got a flight back to England straight after their games and will report to training this morning following the same rehabilitation schedule as a Tuesday night Champions League game.

It will be massages, stretches and analysis work ahead of Man City today, so nothing to strenuous. And then Arteta will have 3 full days of proper training to prepare ahead of Sunday.

Of those 10 who were still on international duty yesterday, 7 started for their countries, and 3 did not play any minutes. That takes us to 19 players who either stayed at home during the international break or have not played this week.

As above, international duty will not be an excuse for whatever happens Sunday. Just 6 of Arteta’s first team were in action yesterday so everyone should be well rested!

Sunday is huge. It reminds me of Liverpool last season.

I said in 2022/23 that I will not start to believe that we could win the title unless we win at Anfield. We drew 2-2 and then fell away. It is the same this season.

It is so tight at the top. 90 points is what is needed to win it. That means 8 wins and a draw from the last 10 games.

With trips to Manchester United and Tottenham, and home games against Chelsea and Aston Villa still to come, we do not want to drop points too early in this run in. Beat Man City and I will start to believe we can do it. Lose and I fear we might fall away and finish 3rd.

Back the boys!

Keenos

Declan Rice to captain England on 50th cap as Ashley Cole inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame

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Morning!

Declan Rice will captain England tonight on the day of his 50th cap. Having played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, you would have thought Gareth Southgate would have given him the match off. Win his 50th cap another day.

Southgate has seen Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdraw through “injury”. You would have thought by now he would realise that if he wants his best players to be available, he should do deals with clubs and manage their playing time.

Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Rice, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins all played the full 90 on Saturday. I wonder how many Southgate will pick tonight.

In terms of other Arsenal news, Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame yesterday.

I actually have no issue with Cole and what happened with Chelsea.

Yes, at the time I was fuming. He joined a direct rival and the stories about he nearly crashed his car after only being offered £55,000 a week felt crass. But as I grew up and matured, I realised Arsenal, and David Dein, were in the wrong.

Cole had agreed a £60,000 a week contract with the Arsenal hierarchy. He was happy to sign on the dotted line. Then when the offer came through it was for £55k a week. It was an underhand move by Dein, alienating a boyhood fan, academy graduate and future captain.

Whenever I see people saying “Arsenal would be in a much better position if Dein had remained involved in the club”, I think about the Cole situation and how his decision forced a potential Arsenal legend out of the club.

It was also Dein, remember, who encouraged other board members to sell their shares to Stan Kroenke, before he sold his own to Alisher Usmanov which created the ownership split and led to our decade long stagnation. It is not a surprise how far Arsenal have moved forward on and off the pitch since Kroenke became 100% owner.

I might never consider Ashley Cole an Arsenal legend, but he is our best ever left-back.

The big transfer rumour is that we are looking to “match Chelsea'” and bid £60m for Ousmane Diomande.

Whilst Diomande is clearly a bright young talent, I can not see us spending £60m on a central defender unless either Gabriel or William Saliba leave. This very much feels like a story inserted by an agent to generate interest in his client.

Likewise, I also can not see us triggering the £103m release clause for Diomande’s teammate Viktor Gyokeres.

£103m is a huge fee for someone who turns 26 soon, and has only had a decent 18 months in the Championship and 1 good season in Portugal.

I have issue paying top dollar for top players (as the Declan Rice deal proves). But this would be a huge chunk of our summer spending on someone who would not be guaranteed a start.

I expect us to spend around £160m this summer, depending on sales.

£27m is already committed to David Raya, and another £10-ish million will need to be spent on an Aaron Ramsdale replacement. That wil lleave us with around £130m left to make additional improvemnts.

We need a central midfielder and a striker. That is not up for debate. We also potentially need another winger.

Our first option is to buy a truly top striker that will be guaranteed to start ahead of Gabriel Jesus, and then Jesus is the back up striker and the cover to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I do not feel Gyokeres is that man.

The alternative is to buy someone who can compete with Jesus, and potentially grow into a superstar in the future. To further add to the squad, we then go out and buy another winger so that Jesus can continue to be utilised primarily up top.

Whilst Gyokeres could be this “alternative option to Jesus”, his proposed transfer fee would mean we would then not have enough in the pot to buy another winger.

If we are spending around £130m, I would rather Arsenal trigger the release clauses of Benjamin Sesko, Nico Williams and Martin Zubimendi (total – £138m), then spend £103m on Gyokeres and only have £30m left to try and recruit a midfielder.

Remember to grab your Bayern Munich tickets if you have not already done so!

Keenos