Rob Edwards insists travelling to face his old side Aston Villa is not a “scary” prospect even though the Birmingham side are in their best home form since he was a baby, 40 years ago.
Under Unai Emery, the Villans have won 11 Premier League games in a row at the back end of last term into this term, with a 4-1 victory over West Ham United last week propelling them into fifth in the division.
This week marked the Spaniard’s first anniversary in charge of the club. He took over a team that had been languishing in 17th place under Steve Gerrard and turned it around to such an extent that only Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool have won more games since he’s been at the helm.
On top of that, Villa have been dispatching teams in some stye. With 23 goals in the nine games so far this season, only Newcastle (24) have scored more Premier League goals, as they’ve racked up 19 points, which is their best tally after nine games for 25 years.
At Villa Park, they last time they were on such a stunning winning run was in October 1983, when they were European champions and Luton boss Edwards was 10 months old.
“It’s not scary,” he insisted ahead of his return to the club that he spent his childhood at from the age of 10 until he signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers at 21.
“That’s why we want to be here. If I was scared I’m in the wrong business. I’m looking forward to it and the lads are as well. We are well aware of the goals they’re scoring at the moment, free flowing, really clear with and without the ball, well-coached, of course, with good players as well.
“It’s a tough game but it’s what we wanted. We all wanted to be here so it’s one to try and enjoy.
“We’ll have to be better than we were last week against a Forest, no doubt about it, but there’s no doubt we can get something from it as well.”
Villa’s run has coincided with a hot-streak for striker Ollie Watkins, who has scored in each of has last three games, with nine bagged in all competitions, plus five assists. Even from midfield, Leon Bailey and Douglas Luiz have both chipped in six apiece.
Asked how he’ll stop that goal threat, Edwards said: “A lot of teams have found that hard at the moment. We’ve got to make sure that we defend as 11, every single person when we haven’t got the ball we’ve got to defend really well as a team.
“We’ll have a clear plan, everyone will know their roles, responsibilities and jobs on the day, and then we’ve got to really carry them out well.
“To get something from this game we know we’ve got to perform really well. Maybe they’ve got to have a bit of an off day as well. But we’ve got to be at it as well and defend together to stop those top players that they’ve got.”
If there’s one major factor that could contribute to an off-day for Villa, it might be that they travelled to Holland to play AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night in the European Conference League, and though they romped to a 4-1 win, they will have less time to prepare than Luton.
“That’s one thing that we can hang on to,” said Edwards. “We’ll try and look for any little thing we can.
“They got a win and a draw after their European exploits so far so it’s not like they’ve come into it and it’s greatly affected them. They’ve gone and beat Chelsea and drawn with Wolves away so I don’t think it’s affected them too much.
“They’re all very fit athletes and he made a few changes as well, but certainly we’ve had more time to prepare for this game than they have.”
With Villa being overwhelming favourites to beat Luton and carry on their exceptional home form, the pressure is virtually off Town. But Edwards doesn’t view the first league clash between the two clubs since 1992 as a chance to prove doubters wrong.
“I don’t think of it like that,” he said, adding: “I just look at it and think, right, this is what we’ve got ahead of us. We’ll try and have a plan and try our best to win a game of football.
“The outside influences, we can’t affect, so that’s fine, everyone will have their own opinions and I get that. Aston Villa are in great form at the moment and they’ll be favourites in most games at home against most teams, so that’s no problem.
“It is a big task. We’re going up against one of the most in-form teams in the league. They made a few changes last night (in the European Conference League) and went and won comfortably against the tough team.
“So, I understand where people will view us in the game but that’s all right I don’t think it makes things any easier at all, but we certainly don’t think we want to prove people wrong.
“We want to do the job and get as many points as we can and this is the next opportunity to do that.”
Edwards added: “We’ll go into it always believing that we can get something from any game and we are well aware of the size of the challenge, the size of the test.
“It’s a really big football club that’s on the up, with the brilliant manager, a team that is full of very good players who are good at the moment.
“Like we have with every game, we’ll go into it believing that we’ll have a plan to try and get something from it. We’re really looking forward to it’s a great game for us.”
