Declan Rice of Arsenal scores the staff’s fourth purpose within the final minute of added time to win the match 4-3 throughout the Premier League match between Luton Town and Arsenal FC at Kenilworth Road on December 05, 2023, in Luton, England.
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Declan Rice’s header deep in stoppage time sealed an enthralling 4-3 victory for Arsenal at lowly Luton Town to ship them 5 factors clear on the high of the Premier League on Tuesday.
Arsenal had been knocked out of their stride by an brisk and direct Luton facet and it regarded as if they have been about to increase their winless run at Kenilworth Road to 11 video games.
But with six minutes of stoppage time performed Rice discovered house to dispatch a header into the web.
His last-gasp purpose sparked unbridled pleasure for the guests who’ve now received 4 league video games in a row, but it surely was heartache for an intrepid Luton facet who had twice come from behind to guide early within the second half.
Arsenal have now taken 9 additional factors this season courtesy of targets scored within the final 5 minutes of video games.
“Luton are a top side and they can’t be overlooked in this league for the quality they have,” Rice informed Amazon Prime.
“To score in the last minute and keep the momentum building it’s massive for us. Those are the moments you look back on. What a game. To score the winner is an honour.”
Arsenal have 36 factors from 15 video games performed with Liverpool on 31 and champions Manchester City on 30 earlier than their video games at Sheffield United and Aston Villa respectively on Wednesday.
After a weekend of high-scoring encounters, the opening 20 minutes on a uncooked night time at Kenilworth Road have been uneventful with no trace of the thriller that was to unfold.
But the sport exploded into life when some fast pondering from a throw-in ended with Gabriel Martinelli scuffing a shot contained in the submit from Bukayo Saka’s in the reduction of.
Luton responded 5 minutes later with Gabriel Osho powering a header previous David Raya from Alfie Doughty’s nook.
Saka and Martinelli have been each denied by saves from Thomas Kaminski however Arsenal did go forward once more simply earlier than the break with Gabriel Jesus heading in Ben White’s dinked cross.
Arsenal had not received at Luton since 1986 they usually have been rocked on their heels early within the second half as first Elijah Adebayo headed in one other Doughty nook within the forty ninth minute earlier than Andros Townsend performed in fellow former England worldwide Ross Barkley eight minutes later to drill a shot by way of Raya.
Raya ought to have finished higher for Luton’s second and third targets however his blushes have been spared by his staff mates.
The previous stadium was nonetheless reverberating from Barkley’s purpose when Kai Havertz squared it up on the hour from Jesus’s move.
Arsenal utilized intense strain however Luton appeared to have sealed a memorable level till Martin Odegaard’s cross picked out Rice who positioned an ideal header previous Kaminski.
“Incredible evening. First of all, congratulations to Luton, their players, staff, the atmosphere they created made it a special night to play football and they made it very hard for us,” Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta mentioned.
“They are so good at set pieces and they made us really fight for the game and at the end it was a beautiful win.”
Luton stay fourth from backside with 9 factors and whereas the defeat stung, supervisor Rob Edwards was rightly pleased with his gamers who gave Arsenal an actual scare.
“Arsenal wanted a game of order and we made it chaotic at times,” Edwards mentioned. “I don’t think that has ever happened to me, conceding that late to lose a game so I’m flat right now.”
Source: www.thehindu.com
