More midweek Premier League action as Arsenal plays host to Luton at the Emirates.
Gunners Versus Hatters
With current league leaders Liverpool not playing until Thursday, the Gunners have a chance to wrestle back top spot in the Premier League.
Taking Temporary Charge
Although Sunday’s clash between Manchester City and Arsenal promised so much, it ended up delivering so little. Very high on the hype scale, very low on the entertainment scale and although the Gunners picked up a point at the Etihad, there is a sense that it feels like a win.
Whether that sense is correct depends on whether you support the Gunners or not. If you do, then you can point to City still being behind you in the league table and the belief that only hunting down Liverpool will be a far easier task.
If you do not support the Gunners, you will look at the post-match post mortem and wonder why Arsenal fans are so triumphant after their trip to Manchester. The reason may not be just Sunday’s draw in isolation, but more how many points Mikel Arteta has taken from Pep Guardiola.
Four points from six is the tally that the apprentice has taken from the master this season and now Arteta will look for three more at the expense at Luton. The Hatters arrive here in the bottom three, they need a win for far differing reasons.
Before the midweek schedule of Premier League matches gets underway, it is Nottingham Forest who have clawed themselves out of the relegation zone and after their draw at home to Crystal Palace, they profited from Luton’s failure to pick up a point in North London.
After Rob Edwards’ men went ahead at Tottenham, their eventual story was one that we have read many times before this season. Luton go into the lead; Luton end the game on the losing side having given everything for no reward.
The Kenilworth Road outfit have lost 18 games this season and 13 of those have been by just a single goal. That is not to say that Luton have been naïve or failed in terms of game management, it just highlights how fine the margins are in the Premier League.
With that being said, those margins at the bottom are currently goal difference and nothing more and although so many people wrote off Luton as a basket case at the start of the campaign, there is absolutely no doubt they have been a welcome addition to the top tier of English football.
An addition that they hope does not lead to a subtraction at the quickest possible opportunity and as we reach the business end of the season, it is time for the minnows to get down to business against one of the league’s giants.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and with Luton losing by the odd goal more often than not, I am going to use this for prediction number one. The Gunners to win this game by a single goal and this priced at a very tempting 9/2.
In addition to this, I am going to back a Tottenham old boy to get one over the Arsenal. Andros Townsend is having a footballing renaissance at Luton, and I am going to back him to score anytime at odds of 8/1.
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