Arsenal eased back to the top of the Premier League with a largely untroubled 2-0 home win over Luton Town tonight. It was an excellent outcome on a night when Mikel Arteta made five changes from the titanic show of defensive resilience at the Emptihad on Sunday.
He brought in Zinchenko at left back for Kiwior, started Reiss Nelson in place of Bukayo Saka (who was not on the bench), replaced Declan Rice with Thomas Partey, Jorginho with Smith-Rowe, and saw Kai Havertz play centrally with Jesús on the bench as well.
Luton had numerous injuries and were fresh from a late and dispiriting defeat at the Toilet Bowl where they had led for much of the game. They found it difficult to penetrate Arsenal all night in the way they had the inferior Tottenham, and the first half was an entertaining but relatively low-key affair.
Rather than give you a detailed blow by blow account I will look at some of the new personnel for Arsenal and some of the issues this performance raised. Suffice it to say that Arsenal began tentatively, which was understandable with such a rotated side, but soon grew into the game. Trossard and Zinchenko had shots blocked before Kaminski saved well from a cross-shot by Smith Rowe. Arsenal’s intensity increased and in the 24th minute ESR robbed Mpanzu in midfield and fed Ødegaard. Ødegaard exchanged passes with Havertz and drove the ball past Kaminski’s left hand.
Arsenal 1 Luton 0 – Ødegaard 24
Luton tried to up the tempo after the goal, and a Townsend cross bounced awkwardly in front of Raya who dealt with it well. Havertz had a couple of close range shots well blocked by the keeper and was making his presence felt in an effective way. Arsenal increased their lead in the 43rd minute when ESR got in behind the right flank of the Luton defence and cut the ball across to Nelson. Luton’s Hashioka beat him to the ball but could only turn it into his own net. In the spirit of Trev one might say he made a bit of a hashioka of his clearance!
Arsenal 2 Luton 0 – Hashioka og 43
The half ended with Barkley testing Raya for the first time with a free kick but the Spaniard made a comfortable save.
Half-time Arsenal 2 Luton 0
My comments on the second half action will be necessarily brief because there wasn’t much! Arsenal made a raft of substitutions. Rice, Nketiah, Martinelli, Tomayisu, and Jorginho replaced Partey, Havertz (just after he was booked for simulation), Nelson, Zinchenko, and ESR. Tomayisu drove just wide and Nketiah forced a good save at his near post from Kaminski.
Luton, to their credit, did not cave in but Arsenal played with a degree of handbrake on and were largely (and rightly) content to control the game and prevent Luton from threatening the Arsenal goal. The game finished with Arsenal well in control with the job done professionally and competently.
Full time – Arsenal 2 Luton 0
There was a lot of speculation in the blog about how many changes Arteta would make, and it would be fair to say five was more than most people expected. How did they do?
The most effective performance came from Smith-Rowe, who was enterprising, energetic, and skilful, and had a hand in both goals. I understand TNT gave him Man of the Match which would be a great lift for him. He produces pace and thrust and always looks to provide a goal threat, and hopefully will have a big part to play as the season nears its climax.
Partey played largely a deeper, holding role in midfield and picked his passes well. He oozes quality and again could have a big part to play for the rest of the season. Nelson worked hard but didn’t have the impact he would have hoped for. I’m not as big a fan of his as some on the blog but it is expecting a lot of him to create a huge performance tonight in his first league start for four years. But I don’t think he will be with us next season.
Zinchenko is a bit of an enigma. Arteta knows much more about the game than I will ever know but he is playing a midfield player at left full back and I think he is too sloppy in defence and seems to lack concentration in some of his passing: he gave a number of balls away tonight and was not tight enough to Townsend or the winger who replaced him. He also made a brilliant interception when Luton looked threatening and produced some clever, creative passes. But in a tight game against a side with pace out wide I think he can be a liability. If he wants to know how to take care of a winger he need only look at the brilliant Ben White who is in outstanding form. Gabriel and Saliba were excellent as always and Ødegaard shook off a knock midway through the half to play his usual high-intensity match at the heart of our midfield, linking attack and defence with creativity and precision. Tonight I also felt Havertz unsettled their back line and although he lacks pace he creates mayhem between the lines.
The season is boiling up into an incredible climax and we are very much involved. This term we are more mature, better organised and our game management is of a completely different order to last term. Luton were never likely to affect our momentum but we handled the challenge of a game a few days after the intensity of the Etihad very sensibly. Arteta is seriously impressing as a great motivator, planner and general.
Thanks TTG, an enjoyable early morning read. As usual I agreed with many of the well-reasoned thoughts you shared although I guess i may be a little more forgiving of Zin.
He is certainly not as good a defender as Ben (or Tomi or Jakob for that matter) but he can still be the difference positively in a tight game.
I guess pretty much all of us hope ESR will play more often, and on that note a piece on him in the grauniad
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2024/apr/03/emile-smith-rowe-gets-arsenal-rockin-and-rolling-on-his-return
On Luton, I have to admit that there were few teams in the league that I disliked more than them at the start of this season and I wished them only a swift return to non-league football, followed by bankruptcy. However, this iteration of Luton have slowly chipped away at my adamantine antipathy this season, until I have a very strange feeling now, they are almost tolerable 😃 Joking aside, they have made a good fist of an almost impossible task.
That’s very much the game I watched and pondered over, TTG. I’m completely aligned with your observations on the famous five who were introduced last night. I think MA8 realises that Zinny is very capable of the odd defensive brain fade but tolerates that for the pieces of attacking magic he contributes – unless the opposition has a game winner on their right wing like Salah, in which case Kiwior or Tomi are more likely to start. I’m hoping to see much more of ESR and Partey as the season rolls toward climax.
Cheers, TTG it’s a well-phrased and enjoyable read for the morning.
I’m happy for ESR and hope to see him more and more in the coming games. It won’t be an easy breakthrough as we have a powerful first team.
The second half was almost boring as we asserted total control even without scoring more goals.
Brighton and especially Munich will bring more excitement.
COYG
A curious, if successful night at the Emirates. It was comfortably the quietest night of the season. I think this was a combination of the opposition, a feeling of confidence, and a pause for breath after City and with Bayern Munich to come. I think there may also have been a few tourists in. I was stopped outside the ground and asked “which way to the clock end”.
Of the squad players who haven’t played much who came in, I thought ESR was terrific, Partey was fine, Zinny was, frankly poor, giving the ball away time and again. Reiss had a nothing game. When the subs came on, Tomi impressed but Eddie didn’t.
Momentum maintained. On to Brighton, where we have the first on the road curry planned since Forest. Let’s hope we win and can enjoy it!
My friend went to the game with his wife and they stayed at the Hilton , Angel . Imagine their surprise in mid-afternoon when the team turned up for a pre-match meal. My friend’s wife regrets a rather gormless film she took in which she names each player in a nervous, girlie voice as they walked past . It helped any player who didn’t know who he was !
Thanks TTG – nothing to disagree with there at all.
I think your summary of the various fortunes of our new starters is spot on.
A professional performance, a satisfactory if not exciting result – we were maybe understandably conserving energy for some big games coming up.
Congratulations to ESR – I really want him to stay and succeed with us. He showed again that he is a player who will run ahead of the ball to beat a deep defence, and always takes the positive option where possible.
Nothing to disagree with in your analysis, TTG. Like OM, I am more forgiving of Zinchenko than you. He is certainly prone to a defensive howler and Tomi and Kiwior are better defenders without question, but he brings qualities on and off the pitch and tactical flexibility in midfield that Arteta values more highly. I suspect that, like Jesus, Zin is a first-name-on-the-teamsheet for European games, if not necessarily for PL games.
I agree that Eddie will likely leave in the summer. He has not developed as fast as the rest of the team and the gap is getting to the point where it is unlikely to be closed. He is also the sort of striker who would flourish in a 4-4-2. That is not how Arteta plays. Nelson probably needs to move for the sake of his career. There are youngsters coming through behind him, too. The question for ESR, is which of Partey, Rice or Ødegaad do you drop so he can play?
To repeat my thought which snuck in just ahead of the chevrons in the previous drinks, City’s 4-1 thrashing of Villa yesterday underlined how well we did at the Etihad on Sunday and how masterful Arteta’s tactics were. Foden gets a hat-trick against Villa but couldn’t get off a single shot on goal against us.
Ned, if we are to once again be a top side that challenges regularly for the Premier League and Champions League, I think we have to get away from the idea of “who do you drop if ESR plays” and adjust our and the players mindset to true, genuine rotation.
A horses for courses rotation that best suits the tactics for a given match, or gives all the players the best chance of avoiding fatigue and injury over a season.
Rotation, for top teams, should not mean “ you can play in this one ‘cos the opposition are poor and we need to give you some minutes of playing time “, but genuinely this is the best team to win the game AND keep EVERYONE fit.
Although we are much better and stronger than at this time last season, we still have Saka, Martinelli, Jesus, Zinchenko, Jorginho, possibly Gabriel, and Partey having to be carefully managed through fatigue and overuse injuries – though not all of them have been overused – some are just prone to injury and need protecting.
That’s an excellent account of the team’s unperturbed successful harvest of three points, TTG. Who knows whether our overall performance was a result of the unfamiliarity of some of those selected, a hangover from the exertions of Sunday or strategic R&R? A veil is best drawn over the second half where the urgency displayed in the first half that had garnered two goals, both lovely in the build-up, the first beautifully finished and the second an air-shot fortuitously rectified by a hapless defender was dissipated in the second half by a lower-grade reprise of a focus on defending deep and restricting our sorties forward.
I share the opinions that Nketiah’s and Nelson’s Arsenal races are nearly run and that ESR’s invigorating contributions may have salvaged his place in the squad. He does bring some different cutlery to the table and hopefully we will see him display his skills again soon.
Trev nicely sums up how we should regard squad rotation system in this period of games every three days.
Trev@9: Your point is well made. Elite clubs have at least a 15-strong 1st XI and a full squad of international quality.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>