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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

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

The curious case of Tomiyasu’s 2-year deal

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Yesterday it was announced that Takehiro Tomiyasu would be following Ben White in signing a new contract. But everything was not as clear cut as the White deal.

Tomiyasu had signed on until 2026, representing a 2 year deal, or a year extension on his current ones. This led to a lot of scratched heads.

My first thought was “has he actually signed a new deal, or is this Arsenal triggering a one-year extension clause”. As it turns out, this was a completely new deal which Tomiyasu was happy to agree.

As time went on, it transpired that the new 2-year deal included a further year option for Arsenal, so in essence it was a new 3-year contract. This is still extremely short for a 25-year-old to agree to.

After more reflection, I came up with two reasons why this deal happened.

The first is it shows where Arsenal are as a club right now. Players want to sign on that dotted line. They want to be involved in the Mikel Arteta journey. So even though the length of the contract was not favourable, Tomiyasu would rather give another 1-2 years to The Arsenal then turn down the deal, leave in the summer and join someone like Aston Villa or Newcastle.

The second is Tomiyasu himself.

On signing his contract, Tomi said: “I am so happy to extend my contract because Arsenal is the best club in the world. It’s a dream to play for this club, so I’m happy.

“When I’m on the pitch I feel the love and energy from the supporters. We are connected a lot so I want to give them something back. I am playing for Arsenal, and this means I’m playing for the Arsenal supporters. That’s why I dedicate my life to this club and the supporters.

“I want to give them something back. The connection between players and supporters is a different level and that makes it more special.”

The first part of his statement shows that he has bought into Arteta’s project and where Arsenal are right now. The second shows that he feels that he owes the club and fans something following his injury issues.

Since joining the club in 2021, he has suffered 4 major injuries that have led him to miss over 40 games for The Arsenal. He clearly feels some sort of guilt over that, and wants to repay the club and fans for sticking by him.

The new deal means that he probably gets another 2-years at the club to show that he can stay fit. And we know that if he keeps fit he can be a big part of our future. If he does not stay fit, Arsenal have not invested too much into him, will trigger the extension in 2026 and sell him.

At 25-years-old, Tomiyasu is also not in “last contract” terrority.

I imagine the money he will be in will be in and around £100k a week. Not many clubs in England or Europe would pay him (or others) that. And if he leaves at 27, he will still be young enough to get another 5-year deal elsewhere.

In the past, we have seen clubs – including Arsenal – offer 5-year deals to players with Tomiyasu’s injury record. And in that 5-years we rarely see them play and are stuck with them until their contract runs down. At least with this deal with can release for free after 2 more seasons, or extend that deal and try and get a fee for him.

It is not very often that you see a player agree to less favourable terms. The 2-year deal is completely in Arsenal’s favour. But this just shows that Tomi wants to be part of Arsenal’s future and repay the fans for their support.

Other news for yesterday is that the Munich away tickets have been announced.

We should get around 3,700, so I am not sure why the club are starting them at 50+ credits. What is odd is that they then advertise all the way down to 10+. They usually advertise down to where they think they will sell out so not sure why they start at 50+ if they predict it will go to 10+.

There can not be more than 3,000 with 30+, and this is further highlighted that once it goes down in 10s below 40+.

The last bit of news is that some places are linking us to a move for Juventus’s Adrien Rabiot. It is a deal I can not see happening.

Whilst his contract does run out at the end of the year, he will certainly not be “free” as his mum will demand inflated wages, a huge signing on fee and a big wad of cash for herself.

Rabiot turns 29 in April and I feel he is a wasted talent – he has never fulfilled his potential.

There has always been a feeling that one-day it might click for him. But at his old age now, those times are running out. He does have the physical and technical ability to play deep into his late 30s at a high level, but I think the time for us sniffing around someone like Rabiot it gone.

Better to buy someone younger, hungrier, who does not have a troublesome history.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Keenos