The fact that Luton’s 3-1 Premier League loss to Sheffield United at home on Saturday was regarded as a “shock” result in some quarters, according to manager Rob Edwards, is a testament to how far his team has come this season.
The visitors entered the match between two teams playing in the second division last season on the heels of a seven-game losing streak. They had been humiliated 5-0 by Aston Villa in front of their own supporters the week before, and they were currently about ten points behind the Hatters, looking relegated to the bottom of the table. Luton has won three of their last six games, losing only once, and defeating both Brighton and Newcastle with a score of four.People outside of Kenilworth Road anticipated that Town would easily win by three points and further dent the Blades’ chances of success.
It didn’t work out that way, though, as Chris Wilder’s team won and gave new life to their own attempts to stay in the top flight with an away day masterclass. Several pundits viewed it as an upset when Luton lost to a team that finished 11 points ahead of them in the Championship last season after finishing second to Burnley, who had only played in the Premier League three seasons prior, and spent £18 million, nearly all of their summer spending budget, on striker Cameron Archer.
Among them was Jamie Carragher, a former defender for England and Liverpool who wrote for the Telegraph, saying: “Such is their form, Luton’s defeat to Sheffield United at Kenilworth Road last weekend was a shock, unable to turn 73 per cent of possession into victory.” The fact that the defeat came as a surprise, considering that they placed lower than their relegation rival in the previous season’s Championship, highlights how quickly Luton has altered public opinion.
In response to the question of whether he believed that response demonstrated the Hatters’ progress thus far, Edwards said, “I believe so. They finished above us last year, but from the 25 games that we came in, we pretty much matched them for points.” We’ve defeated them a few times as well, so we know we can compete with them, but perhaps it demonstrates our progress.
“Now that it’s over, we know we’re headed in the right direction, but it’s equally important to acknowledge the things we are doing well. Over the next 14 or 15 games, there will undoubtedly be some ups and downs. We are getting better while still brushing up on those other things and areas, which demonstrates how much the boys have changed and, in a positive way, how people’s perspectives have perhaps shifted.
“But we all know that winning in this league is extremely difficult, regardless of your opponent. It only takes a few mistakes to get punished by someone, and if you’re not at the top of your game, every day will be difficult—as last week demonstrated.
Although Luton lost last weekend and lost a great chance to pull away from the bottom three, Edwards didn’t think there would be any hangover from that performance when Manchester United, one of, if not the biggest club in the world of football, is visiting Kenilworth Road tomorrow.
It was a disappointing outcome, he said. “I thought we played well overall; we just lacked in the last third.” We had a huge opportunity to tie the score at two minutes remaining in the game, and if we score, I believe we win and everyone will be thinking what a fantastic effort we put on. However, there are good times. Ninety seconds later, it was 3-1 as we erred, we were punished, and that was that.
“I don’t think the performance was poor, we tried our best, we dominated the game, it’s hard to score against 11 people behind the ball when they’re slowing it down and it’s their prerogative to do it. Credit to them and we just came unstuck in a couple of moments. It’s pretty easy to pick the group up to play Manchester United, that’s not been a difficult challenge this week.
Regarding the message, I don’t think you need to really wind anyone up for this game—I think everyone understands the significance of every Premier League game. Likewise, I don’t think you need to for any other game.”
Edwards is aware that the matchup in front of the Sky cameras on Sunday will be very different because Erik ten Hag’s team has very different goals than the Blades this season. They want to get back into the Champions League spots and have already closed the gap to six points with Aston Villa after defeating Unai Emery’s team last weekend.
He added: “We might not come up against that again, that was the plan from the beginning, fair play and it worked. If we got the first goal it would have been different, it’s important we learn from that, focus on the next one, but I still see us in really, really good form. All right we lost the game, but deal with it and move on. We’re going to lose more, it’s just a fact, if we don’t, we’ve done something right.
“We’ve got to be able to deal with those downs and we’ve done that well this season. We knew there were going to be these moments and we’ve shown a lot of character to come back and perform well pretty consistently, so I’m confident the lads will do that this week.”
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