Depleted Luton succumbed to a 2-0 defeat at title-chasing Arsenal, but for once no further injuries, as a spirited second half showing offered hope that the greatest escape of them is still on the cards ahead of a colossal clash at home to Bournemouth on Saturday.
But back in north London for the second time in three days, few expected Town, with ten senior players crocked, to beat a Gunners side that had won 12 of their 15 Premier League games at the Emirates Stadium this term.
On Saturday, five miles down the road, the Hatters injury crisis saw three further players exit early from a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, but Alfie Doughty was passed fit to start against Arsenal, while Tahith Chong was able to take a place on the bench – alongside four Academy players including 16-year-old schoolboy Christian Chigozie – while Reece Burke travelled but didn’t make the squad.
And with a makeshift back three of Teden Mengi, Daiki Hashioka and Issa Kabore between Doughty and Fred Onyedinma, making the most unlikeliest of full Premier League debuts, Luton held out until the 24th minute when Martin Ødegaard fired in with deadly accuracy.
Town’s response was good, though goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski was called on to add to his league highest total of saves. But on the stroke of half time came the killer blow when Emile Smith-Rowe cut back from the byline and, for the second match in a row, a Hatter put through his own net. This time it was Hashioka.
And that left a mountainous task for Town, especially as Arsenal had gone unbeaten in their previous 39 top-flight games in which they’d led at half time. And while they didn’t score for the first time in 20 matches, theirs was a performance still so full of fight.
“Beaten but not disgraced,” said Edwards told the BBC of the defeat, adding: “It started off tough, they got on the front foot and we’d weathered that first ten, 15 minutes, but the goal was obviously disappointing. The second goal was a bit of a killer.”
But Chong was introduced early in the second half and his was a spirited performance among many as Town denied the cricket score many would have been predicting, for a team that had not won in nine previous outings.
Edwards added: “Again, the character that the lads showed at half time, we didn’t go under. I thought our performance in the second half was excellent, apart from that final bit.
“We got behind them on a number of occasions, got a few dangerous crosses into the box. It was just arriving in the right areas with the right numbers, I think. You never know if we’d have got one.
“We said, ‘stay in it’ and at 2-0 we’re in it. It will get edgy if we can get one back. The players did that.
“They (Arsenal) won the game, they scored the two goals, it’s their prerogative if they want to defend, but I don’t think they’d have been saying at half time, ‘let’s settle for two’. That’s not their way. It could come down to goal difference, for what they’re fighting for this year.
“Our performance limited them and kept us in the game.”
Centre half Burke may still return for Saturday’s clash against Bournemouth, though Luton will go into that battle still suffering the absence to so many big players, including captain Tom Lockyer who is still recovering from a cardiac arrest, but was at The Emirates on punditry duties for TNT Sports.
But of the players still available, Edwards said: “They’re showing such belief in what we’re asking them to do and they’re trying their best and giving us everything.
“It’s so difficult at the moment, because there are key players that are missing.
“I think they’ve all come through tonight, which is good. But there were times in that performance, that you wouldn’t notice it, in a way.
“It’s a Luton team and that’s how we try to play.”
And now the Hatters, three points from safety, must quickly turn their attention to the visit of Bournemouth on Saturday, which will be billed as a must-win match, only a matter of weeks after Town took a 0-3 half time lead at the Vitality Stadium, only to lose 4-3.
A second reverse to the Cherries may hammer a more decisive nail in Luton’s Premier League coffin, so they’ll need to resurrect all the fight shown here against an Arsenal team that could afford to start a £100million midfielder, in Declan Rice, which just highlights again how up against it even a fully fit Luton squad would be.
