Luton Town FC vs Arsenal (5th Dec 2023)

Report | Gallant Hatters lose out in seven-goal epic

Town 3 Osho 25, Adebayo 59, Barkley 57

Arsenal 4 Martinelli 20, Jesus 45, Havertz 60, Rice 90+7

A pulsating, gripping, intoxicating 96 minutes had passed.

Then, as an additional minute elapsed, Hatters hearts were broken in the cruellest of endings as a raucous Kenilworth Road fell silent. Declan Rice nodded past Thomas Kaminski – and the seventh and final goal won three points for the league leaders.

Once again Kenilworth Road was at its best, the atmosphere driving on those in orange to performance levels that left everyone on their feet at the end with pride.

The Hatters were behind once and then twice, trailing at 2-1 at the break. Then, incredibly, led 3-2. A famous Luton Town scoreline if ever there was one. Arsenal came back and back again until come the final peep on the referee’s whistle, which signalled a gallant defeat.

Arsenal led for the first time on 20 minutes when Gabrielle Martinelli turned home Bukayo Saka’s cross.

Yet the Hatters were level just five minutes later when Gabe Osho nodded in Alfie Doughty’s left-wing corner. Deservedly so.

The game swung from end to end. The Town attacked when they could – the issue was the Gunners were sensing blood. Kaminski was equal to numerous efforts sent his way but the Belgian could do nothing to stop Gabriel Jesus in first half stoppage time from nodding home to put the visitors in front.

Behind at the break, the Hatters resumed with intent. Just four minutes after the restart it was 2-2. Andros Townsend won a corner which was swung in beautifully by Doughty and Elijah Adebayo, making only his fourth start of the season, rose above David Raya to send Kenilworth Road into pandemonium.

Eight minutes later that turned into pure ecstasy as the Hatters, unbelievably, led. Townsend found Ross Barkley inside the penalty area and, after holding off his man, struck a low drive through the legs of Raya. 3-2.

It was breathless stuff and those inside the old ground were still catching their breath three minutes later when the Gunners levelled. Kai Havertz taking Jesus’ pass to dink past an exposed Kaminski.

All square once more, the Town were under the cosh as time ticked down and the visitors craved an equaliser. Kaminski held a Martin Odegaard effort with 15 minutes before the goalkeeper then tipped over a Havertz header with four minutes left.

Six minutes were added by the officials and then became the crushing blow. The Hatters seemed to have dealt with the Gunners’ final attack, yet as play continued, Odegaard – who had impressed all evening – sent over a teasing left-wing cross and Rice had the final say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28-m-p2YHOM – Rob Edwards interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtB1kUOYDLE – Match highlights

Heartbreak for Luton as Arsenal win seven-goal thriller at Kenilworth Road with final kick

Premier League: Luton Town 3 Arsenal 4

Luton suffered the most cruellest of defeats to Arsenal at Kenilworth Road this evening as £105m summer signing Declan Rice scored with the very last kick of the game to settle a seven goal thriller in the visitors’ favour.

The Hatters had come from behind twice in a pulsating contest in Bedfordshire, before looking like they had done enough to claim what would have been a terrific point against the table-toppers.

Navigating the six minutes of stoppage time played, the clock was well into the seventh when a final ball was slung into the box and there was the England international to send his header beyond Thomas Kaminski and break Town's hearts.

The defeat was incredibly harsh on Rob Edwards' side who had dug in for large periods of the contest, going toe-to-toe with Mikel Arteta's team who came into the match on the back of five straight wins in all competitions.

Ahead of kick-off, Luton made four changes from the 3-1 defeat at Brentford, skipper Tom Lockyer failing to recover from his back injury, although Teden Mengi was able to play.

With the captain out, Alfie Doughty, Jacob Brown, Elijah Adebayo and Andros Townsend came in, Carlton Morris not starting a Premier League game for the first time this season ,as he was on the bench alongside Chiedozie Ogbene and Tahith Chong.

The hosts made a decent fist of the opening 10 minutes, not looking daunted by their visitors' obvious threats and showing far more ambition and purpose than they did at any stage of the first half at the Gtech Stadium on Saturday.

Just when Luton were starting to get their press working and the home supporters began to believe, Town fell behind with a horribly sloppy goal on 20 minutes. Amari'i Bell's backpass was misdirected as a slow to react Kaminski could only pass it out for a throw.

With Doughty and the rest of the defence totally switching off, Saka collected the ball and his low cross was turned in by Gabriel Martinelli, a goal that must have had Edwards furious with the ease at which it was scored.

Gabriel Jesus's low shot was simple for Kaminski, but Luton weren’t behind for long, levelling the scores five minutes later when Brown won a corner. Doughty swung his set-piece into the box and there was Osho to plant a terrific header beyond the grasp of David Raya and into the net for his first goal of the season and Luton's first goal before the interval since the 2-1 win at Everton.

As they often do, the Hatters looked suspect straight from kick off, Kaminski repelling Jesus's near post blast and then doing even better when Arsenal produced their first real slick move on 32 minutes, sticking out a strong right hand to deny Martinelli.

The Belgian was proving a real thorn in the Gunners side, as he flung himself to his right to prevent Saka from replicating Michael Olie's effort and arrowing into the corner of his net.

Arteta's side then showed just why they are at the summit a minute before half time as Saka sent Ben White on the overlap and his deliciously chipped cross saw Jesus hang in the air to convert a header from six yards.

Mengi tried his luck from distance, getting a terrific connection on his left foot, Raya right behind it though.

After the break, Luton started on the front foot as Doughty's cross caused problems, while on 49 minutes, Townsend's shot deflected behind for a corner.

It was from Doughty's set-piece that Luton restored parity again though, his hanging delivery seeing Raya easily outjumped by Adebayo who cushioned his header into the net.

Luton were then in wonderland on 57 minutes, Barkley starting a move from deep and finding Townsend on the edge of the box. He couldn't quite fashion a shooting opportunity, instead finding Barkley to his left and the midfielder did a simple step-over, shooting low and hard, the ball going straight through Raya and in for what was another mistake, although not a single Luton supporter cared about the error-strewn evening the keeper was having.

With the Gunners only having conceded three on their travels all season, the fact that Town had managed to do that in under an hour was some feat.

Once again though, the Hatters were at their worst when scoring as they they were ahead for just three minutes this time, Kai Havertz having the freedom of the box to poke home the leveller to make it 3-3.

With both sides almost having a breather for a few minutes, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu strong-armed Saka off the ball and went for glory against the team he supports, skewing well wide though.

Martin Odegaard, famed for his attempts from distance as well, tried to put the Gunners back in front as the visitors began to turn the screw, Osho able to deflect Leandro Trossard's blast over.

Saka thought he had won a penalty with 11 minutes left, after going over under Osho's block inside the area, but the VAR check went with Town and it remained all square.

Now almost entirely on the back foot, Luton were digging in impressively, as although the Gunners were almost toying with them, they couldn't find a way through, the home side's defence getting everything away.

Kaminski tipped a header over, as six minutes of stoppage time were added and with time up, Raya's clearance saw Kabore penalised for an over enthusiastic attempt to win a header.

That allowed the Gunners to load the box for last one hurrah, and after working it short, the ball in saw Rice get up to glance his header into the bottom corner, as Town suffered a gut-wrenching late defeat.

Hatters: Thomas Kaminski, Issa Kabore, Gabe Osho, Teden Mengi, Amari'i Bell, Alfie Doughty (Ryan Giles 88), Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu (C Jordan Clark 88), Ross Barkley, Andros Townsend (Tahith Chong 61), Jacob Brown (Chiedozie Ogbene 61), Elijah Adebayo (Carlton Morris 61).

Subs not used: Tim Krul, Luke Berry, Joe Johnson, Zack Nelson.

Gunners: David Raya, William Saliba, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard (C), Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli (Oleksander Zinchenko 64), Jakub Kiwior (Leandro Trossard 64), Kai Havertz, Declan Rice.

Subs not used: Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Cedric Soares, Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Reuell Walters.

Referee: Sam Barrott.

Booked: Brown, Barkley, Jesus.

Attendance: 11,112 (1,151 Gunners).

Hatters boss didn't know what to say to his players after Luton are beaten in stoppage time by Arsenal

Edwards reacts to 4-3 Gunners defeat

Hatters boss Rob Edwards admitted he was left almost speechless after seeing his side concede a last-gasp winner when being beaten 4-3 by Premier League leaders Arsenal this evening.

Goals from Gabe Osho, Elijah Adebayo and Ross Barkley looked to have earned the hosts a share of the spoils, only for Declan Rice to score in the seventh minute of stoppage time to break the hearts of the home players and supporters

Speaking afterwards, Edwards conceded he found it hard to convey his emotions to his squad afterwards, saying: “I didn’t really know what to say to the lads afterwards. What I did say was I’m proud of them, not to let that one moment then affect us too much.

I’ve got to look at the bigger picture, they did exactly what we asked of them, gave everything, and football is about entertainment. It was an entertaining game, but my job is to get points as well and we’ve just come up short today.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so disappointed and flat, they were hurt by it, we all were, but all I can say to them was they gave everything, they made the supporters proud.

"The fans were all standing at the end and standing up and clapping, so we know we doing our job when they’re doing that. The difference tonight between a 3-3 and a 4-3 was just those few seconds, so we can learn from it, but if I can almost eliminate it from how I feel about the game, then really, really proud of the players.

“Every game’s different, our performances have been good and you’re playing against a top team like that you know you have to up it and know you have to give even more as they’re going to test us even more, ask more questions and they did that.

"I think we made it a really uncomfortable night for them, they want a game of order and control and we tried to make it chaotic, we tried to be really aggressive and brave and then we showed some really good quality as well on the ball in the moments that we had it.

"So I think we can take some positives from it and we have to, but we know we need to get points as well, performances are things that will get us those.”