Luton’s tunnel vision could be saving grace
When you come up from the Championship to the Premier League, you almost need amnesia; an ability to forget what happened last weekend and focus on the next.
Luton possess that power in the way they can totally dismiss whatever disappointments they have suffered in the previous match. Lose 2-0 to Arsenal? Doesn’t matter. We can beat Bournemouth. Lose 5-1 to Manchester City? That’s gone. On to Brentford.
Luton never get too hung up on a defeat and it feels as if this has been a shared learning journey between the players and Rob edwards, a young manager who has injected a sense of belief into this group of grafters.
Luton secured promotion by averaging just 45 per cent possession and upon joining the elite edwards did not try to turn his team into something they were not. he knew they would have to do some serious defending and stuck to a 3-4-2-1 using rapid wing backs who will cross the ball whenever in range of the box.
That is why they have produced the most crosses in the Premier League this season, and why nobody has more headed attempts than Carlton Morris.
The signings of Ross Barkley and Andros Townsend were key for the Premier League experience they added. Around them, Tahith Chong, Teden Mengi, Issa Kabore and Alfie Doughty deserve special mentions. And it should not be forgotten that Luton are fighting without their captain, Tom Lockyer, and with an injury list in the double digits.
Barkley is the centre of the operation and when they have the ball, he creates a rhythm that Luton dance to. At 30 years old, he is playing the best football of his career by picking up possession in his own half, shrugging off challenges and, being two footed, feeding the marauding wide men.
Brentford will need to deal with that threat today but with centre- back options such as 6ft 6in Kristoffer Ajer, 6ft 4in nathan Collins and 6ft 3in Mathias Jorgensen, manager Thomas Frank will hope they can handle balls flying into their box.
This is a big weekend in the relegation fight and Luton need to seize the initiative before everton and nottingham Forest face each other tomorrow.
The points deductions for those two rivals have acted as lifelines for Luton. A study of everton’s remaining fixtures, with four of their six games at home, makes them favourites to stay up but one of their two away trips will take them to Luton.
everton’s Sean Dyche will not want it going down to the final game, especially as they end this campaign at Arsenal. Only once in Premier League history have the three promoted teams dropped straight back down and that was in 1997-98. Sheffield United are all but gone and, barring a miraculous comeback, so are Burnley. So it is on Luton to make sure that does not happen.