Arsenal 2 – 0 Luton Town – Match Report

We moved again to the highest of the Premier League after beating Luton City 2-0 to increase our unbeaten league run to 10 matches.

The harm was achieved earlier than half-time as Martin Odegaard opened the scoring on 24 minutes earlier than an personal aim from Daiki Hashioka doubled our lead simply earlier than the interval.

A much-changed facet then managed the second half to safe the three factors that noticed them leapfrog Liverpool on the division’s summit, not less than till Thursday evening when the Reds are subsequent in motion as our title problem continues.

Skipper opens the scoring

Pre-match, Arteta made 5 adjustments, essentially the most he’d made between Premier League fixtures since September 2021, and handed long-awaited league begins to Reiss Nelson, Emile Smith Rowe and Thomas Partey.

And whereas that meant there was a bit little bit of rustiness to shake off within the opening quarter with neither facet making a clear-cut likelihood, we quickly started to rediscover our rhythm and on 24 minutes the lead was seized.

The transfer was instigated by Smith Rowe, who gained the ball off Pelly Mpanzu within the last third earlier than discovering Odegaard. Our skipper performed a give-and-go with Kai Havertz who was well-placed contained in the field, and that allowed Odegaard to drill the ball low into the online to register his ninth strike of the season.

Smith Rowe sparkles

Determined to get on the scoresheet himself for the primary time since April 2022, Smith Rowe had a sight of aim when Odegaard threaded an intricate go into his path inside a congested space and regardless of taking pictures by means of a defender’s legs, Thomas Kaminski confirmed good reactions to make a robust save.

We continued to exert our dominance of proceedings and Havertz blasted at Kaminski after being arrange by an excellent flip by Ben White, and Partey got here near inadvertently netting when Alfie Doughty’s clearance struck the midfielder and spun huge of the put up.

However with two minutes of the half remaining, Smith Rowe performed an enormous half in creating our second. He linked up with Leandro Trossard to get to the byline and centred in the direction of Nelson’s path, and beneath stress from our winger, Hashioka flicked the ball into his personal web to place us in a commanding place on the break.

Three factors secured

The second half started the identical means because the opening 45, with neither group managing to check both goalkeeper within the opening half-hour. Luton pushed additional ahead and put us beneath extra stress to try to conjure a means again into the competition, however their lack of menace in entrance of aim meant it was a comparatively quiet evening for our backline.

Along with his facet in agency management, Arteta elected to present Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah some minutes, but it surely was one other substitute in Takehiro Tomiyasu who really had the primary try of the second half within the eightieth minute however he curled the ball simply huge of the far put up from the sting of the realm.

The Hatters merely couldn’t discover a solution to take a look at David Raya as we comfortably crossed the end line, and certainly within the last jiffy we had been those trying to bother the guests additional, with Kaminski compelled to palm a low Nketiah drive round his put up.

The 2 objectives and a league-leading thirteenth clear sheet of the marketing campaign had been greater than sufficient to see us return to the highest of the desk with eight video games to go.

Info and stats

We’re unbeaten in every of our final 39 Premier League matches beneath Mikel Arteta during which we’ve been forward at half-time (W36 D3), a run which has seen us win all of our final 15 matches when in entrance on the break.

We now have now gained 12 of our 15 dwelling matches within the Premier League this season (D2 L1); solely in 1934/35 (13 wins) and 2002/03 (13 wins) had the Gunners picked up extra dwelling wins at this stage of a top-flight marketing campaign.

Luton have now did not win any of their final 10 Premier League matches (D3 L7), their longest winless run throughout the highest 4 tiers of English soccer since March 2008 (a run of 13 with out victory within the third tier) and their longest run with out a win within the top-flight since December 1991 (run of 11).

Kai Havertz has now been instantly concerned in 12 objectives within the Premier League this season for us (8 objectives, 4 assists), the outright most he has contributed in a single season within the competitors.

We now have benefited from 4 personal objectives within the Premier League this season, with no group benefitting from extra (Liverpool, Brighton and Tottenham additionally on 4). The final time we had extra personal objectives scored in our favour in a Premier League season was in 2009/10 (6).

Luton’s 38 away objectives conceded is essentially the most of any group within the Premier League this season, with the Hatters conceding a median of two.4 objectives per away match (38 in 16).

Reiss Nelson made his first Premier League begin since July 2020 in opposition to Liverpool, 1,358 days (3 years, 263 days) in the past. Solely Mathieu Flamini (5y 162d) and Sol Campbell (3y 296d) have ever had longer gaps between begins for us within the competitors.

This was solely the second time because the begin of the 2021/22 season that neither Bukayo Saka nor Gabriel Martinelli began a Premier League recreation for us; the opposite was our 1-0 win over Man Metropolis in October this season.

What’s subsequent

We’re again in motion on Saturday after we journey to the Amex Stadium to face Brighton & Hove Albion, earlier than the Champions League returns after we host Bayern Munich within the first leg of our quarter-final double header on Tuesday, April 9.