Arsenal v Luton: Premier League – live

It’s been a rough start to Luton life for Daiki Hashioka, who joined the club in January from Belgian side Sint-Truidense. The Japan international has lost all but one of his five Hatters matches so far, and the right back will likely have to battle Leandro Trossard tonight, with Gabriel Martinelli lurking on the bench. Here’s what he had to say before tonight’s match:

“I knew the standard of the Premier League would be very high before coming here but I am enjoying every minute of it. Although we’ve got lots of injuries, if we could win against Arsenal, it would give us a huge boost going into the next match against Bournemouth, so we need to keep our confidence high.”

The games comes thick and fast at this stage of the season. City was Sunday. Luton today. Brighton on Saturday. Bayern next Tuesday. Of all the games to rest Saka and Rice, this feels like the right one. Gunners fans will hope that the squad rotation doesn’t bite Arteta in his arse.

Meanwhile, in Turkey … ya Gunners yaaaaaaa.

Rice on the bench! No Saka in the squad! Smith Rowe makes his first start since January! Partey makes his first start since August! Nelson makes his first league start of the season! Now then!

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Partey, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Havertz, Trossard.
Subs: Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, Nketiah, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Jorginho, Vieira, Rice.

Luton: Kaminski, Kabore, Mengi, Onyedinma, Doughty, Clark,
Barkley, Mpanzu, Townsend, Morris, Hashioka.
Subs: Shea, Berry, Woodrow, Chong, Krul, Johnson, Nelson, Piesold, Chigozie.

With the possible exception of Sunday at the Etihad, every game feels must-win at the moment for Arsenal. And this feels like possibly the most winnable game of the season, at home to one of the weakest teams in the division, a struggling side who themselves are woefully out of form.

Equally, this is exactly the sort of game that Arsenal could fumble, just as they did last year. Almost exactly a year ago, Arsenal blew their title chances with three successive draws, twice blowing 2-0 away leads at Liverpool and West Ham, before a 3-3 home draw with a doomed Southampton side ended all hope of catching Manchester City.

The latter result feels pertinent here. Underestimate Luton, as Arsenal nearly did in the return fixture at Kenilworth Road in which Declan Rice scored an injury-time winner in a 4-3 win, and they have the smarts and the spirit to punish even the best sides.

Luton are on a rotten run of form – without a win since January – but in the intervening 10 matches have only lost by more than one goal on three occasions. They have been in most matches. It would be a surprise if Arsenal didn’t win this, but it would also be surprising if this was a walkover. Let’s see.

Kick-off: 7.30pm BST.