[Match Thread] Arsenal F.C. vs. Luton Town F.C.

That has got to hurt for Luton

raya.

There ya go silence those twats

Could've used Ramsdale for this one

Holy shit, what an ending.

They're literally walking now, come on lads just finish them

Ross looks exhausted. Lol

At least five times Gabby J had been pulled back when about to receive a through ball

LOL did anyone else see the Luton fan give the camera the bird and walk away?

Don't blame him lol. Would've probably been a historic result for them.
- No, I couldn't possibly be mad. They were all completely knackered, and if it wasn't Arsenal I'd want them to have the win

How the fuck are both of those not penalties

Same reason the goal stood at Newcastle.

Camera pans to Ramsdale and he stops smiling 😂

Oh you fucking mad lads...this is this year's Bournemouth game huh

SIXTY MILLION DOWN THE DRAIN

KAI HAVERTZ SCORES AGAIN

To be fair, I'd rather this angle than the ones I see regularly from the local second tier Hong Kong team which is just... a singular tripod haha

at least with this we can actually see the far side of the pitch, and the top of some players' heads XD

Luton fans so weird

Booing Raya and Saka like wtf

Let them, they'll probably not see players of that caliber again in that dump
- aren't they moving soon? might literally not lol
Just wanting every advantage they can find, probably.

I am seething.

First Wilshere, now Saka. Protect your fucking players or watch their fitness deteriorate.

Would have been a peach

That's a bit better

Almost Kai, almost

Wasn't that a foul on Kai?

Kavanagh's in VAR, never gonna happen. but OI

1st half thoughts:

we conceded too easily.
it's good Barkley has got a yellow, he has been their best player.
Jesus yellow card was a pathetically weak home decision
Midfield is more contested than we'd like. Rice and Havertz have done well to hold their own, but we are missing having another player in the centre.
I hate the dimensions of this pitch.

Raya

Bro i just turned off the tab

I just turned off my do not disturb on my phone LMFAO

I don't think there's any chance that they're going to score unless we gift them another corner. They're basically in a 5-5-0

Kiwi actually quietly solid

MARTINELLIIII

Well Zinny got his battle face on.

Ross Barkley doing the majority of Luton's midfield work

I hate this camera angle

I'll allow it, the stadium isn't exactly massive.
- Seems like we're really close. Haha. The camera has to pan a lot

We were so close to being Spurzed. Crazy shit.

Declan with the last minute goals again

HOLY FUCK WHAT THE SHIT I AM GOING TO MAKE SOME RICE RIGHT NOW

I wanted to watch it oh ffs

You can tell the ref is new, he's actually carding them for challenges on our wingers

I hate Orbinho

what'd he do now?
- Those jinx stats

Imma be real, kinda hard to celebrate still drawing Luton as much as Kai deserves the goal

I cheered, but more so out of relief we're not behind
- If we're only separated by GD I don't rate o it chances to the league lol, needs to be all the points all the time.
Triple change for Luton now, I reckon we can take advantage of it and smash 2 or 3 more past them

Booking for that? Twat

Oh no, it actually bounces off someone after Rice's head

still his goal, was on target iirc.
- It was, it was just crazy to see

DECLAN YOU MONSTER

Kai you loveable unlucky bastard

Well Luton have not let anyone scored more than 1 at home this season I believe

Can see why, they're blocking us well.

They would give that if it wasn't in the box

i don't think it was in the box, tbh!
- Eh, he's on the line but I could swear the contact itself happens inside the box
- VAR are checking it so maybe it is, was hard to tell on first glance cuz his foot landed just outside. Probably not a pen though on extra watching.
Sadly true, I think

Us: 3 goals from 2.02 xG

Them: 3 goals from 0.5 xG

We are not the same

Fucking hell.

Sigh. Why though

Claiming is supposed to be Raya's strong suit!
- to be fair also no one's trying to contest it
- @sensiblepuffin i think ramsdale needs to play our away games in the PL

Sorry Kiwi... But he had a decent 60 minutes

I'm really happy with him, I pray for the day that we can comfortably plug Kiwior into our CB pairing with no drama whatsoever

I have like no faith that we will score from corners anymore.

We need tall guys...

Gonna miss the end of the game but as long as we start well that shouldn't be a problem.

Alright, they've made all their subs. Run them ragged and finish this

That is no good

don't think there even is a technical area here ngl

David Raya's entire existence at this club just bothers me right now

I have nothing against him personally, he seems like a fairly decent guy.

But he has been put in an impossible situation by Arteta and he is absolutely not so much better than Ramsdale that he should be starting matches over him.

Fucking shit show management . That's two goals he has given Luton today, and he hasn't been convincing in any match he's played in so far.

Agreed, this is one of two things that Arteta has really gotten wrong imho from a man management perspective. He cannot say he's rotating keepers and then never pick Ramsdale until he's literally forced to. Now both keepers look haunted and are constantly looking over their shoulders. It's a nightmare.
- This and his use of our squad in general
  It's a self fulfilling prophecy honestly. You don't trust your side players to be able to play so you don't play them with any regularity. Then they come in, with zero match preparation or match fitness, and don't perform as well, so you drop them again. If we want to win the league we have to use the squad more
- @sensiblepuffin @LotrOrc easy thing would be ramsdale for all away PL games
I think him starting is fine, tbh, but not us spending 30 mil on him.
- I don't think we should after this test drive
- There's no need for that for sure.
  Throw that thirty mill towards getting paulinha or another replacement for Partey

WAKKKKKKA WAKKKKKAAAAAA EHHH EHHHH

Sixty millions down the drain

Did not put my money of this match being a goal fest...

Alrighty let's start this BBQ

Ref's under the crowds influence

A young 'un, first season in the Prem, and in a crowd like this. Kinda inevitable.
- It's true. This is a good test of a ref's abilities

Gabby J 🙌🏼

Damn if that went in

Now let's run away with this match

J

Rice!!

From a tweet -

This is peak English refereeing acting as an equalizer more than an objective arbiter of the rules. Poor little Luton are allowed to have a go at injuring our players because that’s the only way they can get a result. It’s pathetic.

Nah it's not peak, they're actually giving cards for once.
- Spoke too soon. Low bar he's set for yellows after that Jesus one, let's see if he gives one to every luton pull now.

Oh you fuckers I just turned it off 🤣🤣🤣

That's why I turned off do not disturb first LMFAO
- I literally turned to watch PBS 🤣🤣🤣 and then i get a text wtf

Jesus shushing the crowd haha

J E S U S

E

S

U

S

Edit: And

B E N N Y

L

A

N

C

O

FUCK SO CLOSE

I think it was headed for the crossbar but still. Things are looking up for King Kai
- Yeah but one could certainly argue that's also an unlucky thing lol
- I'm really glad, it took a while but I'm hoping Arteta is able to bring the best out of him.

That's seriously Jesus' first goal in three months? That's insanity.

First PL goal, he's scored in the CL
- Yeah, but first PL goal is still insane. He's gotta get those numbers up

Just a reminder once again: no easy games in the Prem

Bukayo, you cannot be doing that

Ross Barkley....now that's a name I've not heard in a while

same thoughts lol
- Last I heard he was in France

Jesus needs to make that decision faster.

48 touches in their box is insane.

So is them scoring 3 from 7 lol
- They had a plan and they executed it

Ruthless. I love it.

Cmon now allow it keeper, you've had your wonder save of the match already

Kaiiiiii

Keepers going super saiyan against us, what else is new

DECLAN RICE!!!!!

R SDKLJFLSKJFKL DF KJSDFK LJ

OI

GABBY why not just cut it back?

Offside but still. I think all of our strikes are much better when they work off of instinct, and overthinking has fucking killed us this season
- Billy mentioned this with Havertz as well, though that's probably more about his individual confidence and it's also kinda less there now

Yeah fuck this

Every time we're close to making a galaxy brain play, something fucks it up. They're not going to let us have tons of chances, we're going to have to force the issue

How are we letting a header from there.

Raya. Raya. RAYA!

That is the most SIMPLE, most TELEGRAPHED strike I've seen today. Just do the little sideways kneeling thing! Why are you relying on gravity to do your job for you?

OI

HOWS THAT NOT A FOUL
- THEY'RE NOT HERE TO PLAY FOOTBALL, LADS

Martinelli taking up much of Zinchenko's responsibilities inside and deep.

crazy idea: Could we play Martinelli at LB, like proper inverting Zinchenko LB not just LWB with a back 3?

Fuck Andros Townsend

We kinda suck at defending set pieces

better this season than last, I think. Just confirmation bias.

Don't get desperate lads, stick to the plan

Oh fuck off

Terrorism ball

Benny does not want to lose his spot again btw lol

Need some FPL points fsor Saka too, while I'm praying

As an aside, just sat down to find the Dutch scores two and us only one. Damn those Scots.

No team GB
- Yeah, at least Viv might get to go lol

Raya having a mare. I'm off to class, fuck this.

https://twitter.com/SamJDean/status/1732143555416604795

lmfao our club is crazy

@Astrealix truly is everyone eats FC as I saw someone write after the Lens game
- also, happy cake day! which is apparently a thing on lemmy now.
- both for the mens' and the womens'

Bro... He was like pulling Big Gabi out of the way

Credit to Luton, they're here to cause problems

I just want to send them into the abyss

where'd they pull 5 minutes out from lol

The Mines of Moria

What a shot

Throw on Cloe Lacasse

Jokes aside, our men's team could use some "finishers" like Jonas has in the attack.
- To be fair, we do have Tomi and Trossard, but our injury situation is such that we can't use them like that

Give it man

Just realised that in my frustration over Luton's third I forgot to get a hoodie on heading to class. Hands are kinda freezing ngl

KH

lol okay. You can see him telling the ref it's his first foul.

I love how the accumulation thing never seems to apply to the other team's fouls, and frequently our players get carded for our first offense

Yes Kai

looked so close on the camera lol
- I feel like I'm watching a game at Meadow Park

Saka's 200th btw.

Sixty million dollar man

Ok that doesn't look good

COME ON YOU GUNNERS

@sensiblepuffin @Astrealix fitting that Rizz (aka rice) is word of the year!

hafta hand it to them, the atmosphere feels European. Probably easier when the stadium is the size it is, but still.

Lads can y'all give Saka a bit of help

King Kai!

Just what we needed after silencing the stadium :/

Time for the 7-1 now

see the problem is you'er supposed to do the 1 after the 7
- Ah fuck I can't believe they've done this

Vieira would have been good to sub on here...

FUCK that was a great play

BALL. FORWARD.

When's the last time a stadium this small made it to the Premier League?

Looks like this is the smallest ever at just over 10,000! Bournemouth is second smallest at 11,000.
- So it is. Wonder if you include the First Division how long you'd have to go.

I've never been convinced of Raya, this game cements it

He's a Zinny kinda player: benefits the team but the bads can be devastating
- It's not exactly reassuring.

that looked like a shove, not in the box i think but

nevermind nah replay looks fine

Rip his balls

If you're worried about the pitch, look on the bright side: it used to be artificial turf here.

Is that Ross Barkley??

bloody hell

Did Benny get skinnier?

Oh fuck

Ooo that was scrappy but some decent attempts

This commentator is making me want to rip my ears off. Everything Luton do is "brilliant" this and "brilliant" that.

First time watching commentators talk about our opponents?
- More that he only has one adjective!
which one? haven't heard nothing like it on my stream unless i've just tuned them out or smth
- Streaming some Irish channel "Premier Sports 1 Live"

Tbf, would rather draw Luton than draw Spurs 3-3

Martinelli collecting rebounds like it's basketball

I hate that there's three matches I want to be following right now. Pizza cup doesn't matter much I suppose... on the bright side England are top of the group!!

not only that, but Meado scored :)

6 minutes lads, let's go for it

Having seen a clip of the second goal, Havertz does quite well there.

declan rice is overpowered

You should be stripped of your club license if you advertise anything calling it "soccer" in England

Saka just beat 2 at once

JESUS CHRIST

Mate you're not hitting fans with the size of this stadium man

Get one to Kai's head our new BFG

Edwards doesn't look like he's even happy lol.

Oh fucking hell

Imma be real that's a pen

KING

Ugh Bukayo needs to work on his corners