PREVIEW: Arsenal vs Luton Town

Following their 0-0 draw away to Manchester City, Arsenal welcome relegation-threatened Luton Town to Emirates Stadium. A win will see The Gunners return to the top of the table, with Liverpool not playing until Thursday.

Injury News - Arsenal

Bukayo Saka was an injury doubt going into the weekend, but recovered suitably to play 78 minutes. His substitution of course brought questions about his availability heading into Wednesday's fixture, with Mikel Arteta stating: "He's fine. Obviously, we haven't trained, we’ve only recovered and have a short live session today to prepare for the game, and we'll see whether he's in the best condition to start or not.”

There was further positive news regarding the fitness of Gabriel Martinelli, with Arteta suggesting that he would be available to play 90 minutes if required. 

Jurrien Timber remains the only confirmed absentee but there is optimism that he is not far from a return and could feature before the end of the season. 

Injury News - Luton Town

Tom Lockyer, Amari'i Bell, Marvelous Nakamba, Elijah Adebayor, Sambi Lokonga, Dan Potts, Mads Andersen, Chiedoze Ogbene and Jacob Brown all make up and extensive injury list and will miss the trip to The Emirates. 

Gabriel Osho, Alfie Doughty, Tahith Chong and Reece Burke are all doubts and will be assessed closer to kick off. 

Form

The Gunners have won eight of their previous nine fixtures and drew 0-0 in a title showdown with Manchester City on Sunday. They sit two points off top sport ahead of the final nine games of the season. 

Luton have picked up just two points from their last five games and lost 2-1 on their last outing away to Tottenham Hotspur. They have though contested those games tightly and only been narrowly beaten in three of those games. 

Recent History

Arsenal have played Luton on 49 occasions and have won 28, drawn 11 and lost ten. 

They beat The Hatters 4-3 at Kenilworth Road back in December thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Declan Rice. 

Luton's most high-profile victory over Arsenal came in the 1988 League Cup final, where they defied the odds to beat George Graham's side 3-2 to win their first piece of major silverware.

Played For Both

Sambi Lokonga is currently on loan from Arsenal to Luton. Matthew Upson signed for Arsenal from Luton back in 1997 as a young prospect, while Henri Lansbury and Matt Macey have both represented both sides. 

Trawling back through the archives, Paul Dickov, John Harrison and Malcolm MacDonald ha e also played for both.

Prediction

Arsenal enter the final phase of the season knowing that near perfection will be required to get them over the line in their hunt for the title. 

Luton will put up a test, but Arsenal simply have to win to build momentum after their draw at City.

Arsenal 3-0 Luton.