Arsenal 2-0 Luton Town
by Layth Yousif 
at Ashburton Grove

ARSENAL returned to the top of the Premier League table after a 2-0 victory over a hard-working Luton side.

The result ensured Mikel Arteta's side leapfrogged second place Liverpool, who play Sheffield United at Anfield on Thursday evening.

Martin Odegaard fired home his 10th goal of the campaign, after being teed up by Kai Havertz on 24 minutes to put the Gunners 1-0 up.

The move was started by first team returnee and homegrown talent Emile Smith Rowe, who pressured Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu into ceding possession that saw Odegaard dovetailing well with Havertz.

Reiss Nelson appeared to have slotted home after good work by Smith Rowe a minute before the interval. However, the powers-that-be decided it was to be Hatters' Daiki Hashioka's own goal.

David Raya was forced to keep out the excellent Ross Barkley's free-kick on the stroke of half-time.

Arteta made five changes, with Declan Rice, Gabriel Jesus and Jorginho given a rest as a busy spell of season-defining fixtures looms large, which includes Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

A worrying injury list for Rob Edwards side left them without the services of 11 players - forcing them to have 16-year-old schoolboy defender Christian Chigozie on the bench.

In what was to prove a 'comfortable' victory - in as much as Arsenal's work rate was good enough to cancel out Edwards' relentlessly energetic Hatters, thereby allowing their quality to take over and dominate - Takehiro Tomiyasu nearly made it three late in the second half, but his long range curler flew narrowly wide.

Fellow substitute Eddie Nketiah tested Thomas Kaminski shortly afterwards, but the Hatters keeper kept out the Lambeth-born striker's effort.

Luton remain 18th, three points shy of safety, with seven games left. Next up for Edwards side is a crucial match against Bournemouth at Kenilworth Road on Saturday.

At the top of the table, Arsenal must travel Brighton this Saturday teatime, in another absorbing round of fixtures at the business end of this enthralling season. 

Arteta said after the match: "We are showing a lot of consistency and quality to be able to be fighting in the positions that we are in right now. 

"And now that’s it – sleep, eat, prepare well and now it’s Brighton."