Arsenal beat Luton Town 3-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly at London Colney yesterday afternoon.
Details are thin on the ground but it’s reported that the game was split into 30-minute thirds and that David Raya made his debut, Reiss Nelson and Oleksandr Zinchenko featured and most of the first team squad got minutes.
Leandro Trossard netted a brace and Bukayo Saka grabbed the other in what sounds like a convincing win.
Luton don’t play this weekend having requested a postponement earlier in the summer so that they can bring Kenilworth Road up to the required standards for Premier League football.
Rob Edwards’ side opened the campaign with a 4-1 defeat to Brighton.
Arsenal’s second game of the season takes place on Monday against Crystal Palace and Mikel Arteta has urged his players to be more clinical.
Despite dominating for long periods of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest, the Gunners conceded late and faced nervy moments ensuring they didn’t drop points.
“When you play games of that type, it has to finish three, four, five,” said Arteta on Thursday.
“We didn’t do it and that’s why in the Premier League if you give something to the opponent, it’s always going to be a nervy ending unfortunately.
He added: “We conceded [a chance] in the first half that was directly after a second ball they hooked and they are through.
“Then they countered after a set play, with both coming from a goal kick and the one coming from a corner, but after that nothing else.
“When you dominate the game as much as we did the other day and the situations that you have, the final pass is still not neat enough or good enough to finish the actions better. That’s what we have to improve.”
Nice game, good result. Trossard on target again! Great to see.
Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to come up with a derogatory name for Luton.
For example:
Man City = Man Shitty
Man United = Man UShited
Brighton = Shite’n
Spurs = Spurns
Liverpool = Slitherpool
Help me out with Luton…. ?
Pooton
You’re welcome
Perfect! 😀
Fits with the theme too, even more impressive!
No
i would instead of pooton, go for putin
What have Luton ever done to deserve this?!
Poot On.
Loo town, shurely?
How about Futon, after they sofa a heavy 3-0 defeat to Arsenal.
New castle -New cashload
Loot-on
New castle = New shitty
Pooton.
I’m sure anyone who’s ever been there will agree.
Yup. If you wanted to give the world an enema, Luton is where you would stick the tube.
Damn you, Johnny 4 Hats….!
This, in my head, sounds so much like an old timey villain damning a hero saving the day with closed fist and gritted teeth, that its funnier every time I read it. Thanks for improved morning 😀
Strange Arteta is complaining about fixture congestion but playing a friendly after only one game. I suppose it can be classed as a really intense training session .
Got to build team cohesion, we’ll just be doing it on the job otherwise.
Context is important. In August it’s very much about building up match fitness and sharpness. Becomes a problem when you have teams playing 8/9 games in December or when the refixtures are piled on towards the end of the season. At least there won’t be a six week World Cup break this season!
Do you think “Win” got a run out?
Trossard is absolutely on fire. Such an intelligent player.
He needs to start more regularly
I agree he’s earned a starting spot with his performances but it’s tough to make room for him except as a false 9 maybe? Which I don’t see him playing against the Forest’s and Palace’s of the world who put 11 behind the ball and pack the box. I think Eddie’s body type and poacher skills are more valuable against that kind of opposition, and hard to take him out as long as he’s scoring goals. Tross will get some starts hopefully in other competitions to rotate Martinelli and some false 9 against teams who don’t park the bus… and… Read more »
bro been saying too many fixtures then goes and plays a friendly the same day 😂
People are getting this really twisted. If you listen to what he’s saying it’s less about the number of fixtures in season and more about the fact the players get no long breaks anymore to recover. You have to train in season anyway so what’s the difference between that and a friendly?
Do we get a cup for this?
Yes, full of tea.
Lipton?
Luton -new boys
Man city-Money cheaty
Newcastle-Newcashload
Liverpool-Liverpoop
Arsenal-Invincibles
Bossard
Interesting thought experiment. Which of City’s players is most analogous to their Arsenal counterparts? An analysis of respective squad depth. Buckle up. One sentence summary: It’s closer than it’s ever been, but they’re still the standard. Arsenal can close the gap further by improving their attacking depth. Ederson : Ramsdale and Raya. Ederson is the standard when it comes to playing out from the back. Raya brings more of his inventive passing than Ramsdale, especially under pressure, so we are banking on Rambo either picking up some of Raya’s tricks or the Spaniard supplanting him in order to get closer.… Read more »