Ross Barkley admitted Arsenal’s late, late winner was a “killer” but ruled out a lack of focus and said Luton are working hard to avoid similar mistakes.
It was the second time in three home games that Town have conceded deep into injury time and while they still took a point against Liverpool, Declan’s Rice’s header ensure the Gunners won 4-3.
On his 30th birthday, Barkley had put the Hatters ahead 3-2, having come back from 2-1 down at the break, but the shine was taken off his first goal for the club in less than three minutes as Kai Harvetz levelled the contest ahead of the last-gasp drama.
“It’s a bit of a downer in the end, because we performed well against the team that’s top of the league,” said Barkley, adding: “(There are) positives to take from it because we were down 2-1, came back 3-2 and then we conceded another two.
“It’s easy to iron out but we keep making those mistakes, but we are working on sorting it out. (It’s’) a killer in the end.
“It just happens. A goal happens quickly. It’s not that we can’t stay focused for the full game. I know we conceded late against Liverpool but even against Crystal Palace and Everton in the late stages, the team’s done well to get the wins.
“So, we’re still learning and staying positive. We’ll have a debrief and we’ll focus on the next game.”
Ahead of their first visit to Kenilworth Road in 32 years Arsenal had been conceding an average of just 0.83 goals a game and no team had put three past them in the Premier League, whereas the hosts hadn’t netted more than twice in a game this term.
Barkley said: “We’ve got great team spirit and we show character on game day. We were getting beat 1-0, came back then getting 2-1 and we’ve gone ahead. We were unfortunate to concede in the last minute.
“If they didn’t score that, we’d probably say that we were the better side. They weren’t really causing us any problems, except for a few moments of magic from them which they’re going to have because they’re a quality side with top players.
“I thought we caused them problems and we’re a danger to anyone. No team in the league has scored three goals in the league against Arsenal, so you have to look at it in a positive way.”
