Club

Old school Kenilworth Road can be a leveller – Edwards

Town boss Rob Edwards hopes the “old school” nature of Kenilworth Road can act as a leveller as he prepares his side to face Premier League leaders Arsenal tonight.

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Not since 1991 have the Hatters entertained the Gunners but the visitors have not won on their past ten visits to Bedfordshire, a run stretching back to 1986.

“The Kenny is different, it is a little bit tighter, it is intimidating,” said the manager at his Monday press conference.

“We’re certainly going to need our fans to be at their best and hopefully we can give them something to cheer about as well.

“It is unique, the ground is different, it is a bit of a leveller, we’ve had a lot of tight games there so far this season, hopefully this can be another one.

“We’re coming up against one of the best teams in the world, so just because we’re at home doesn’t mean it’s going to be a walk in the park, we’ve got to make sure we’re right at it.

“It’s different for them, it’s very, very old school and the level of these players now and where they’ve been playing for a long time, they’re used to these huge stadiums now.

“Kenilworth Road is just not that, it’s just intense and it’s on top of you and it’s quite unique.”

Having taken four points from their last two home fixtures against Liverpool and Crystal Palace, Edwards – while realising the test his side face – is anticipating another competitive showing from the Hatters.

“We’ll approach the game in the same way we do every game and try to find a way to win, that’s what we always do.

“We know it’s going to be very, very difficult against an amazing football team. It’s a huge football club we’re coming up against, one of the best managers, some of the best players, some of them in the world.

“So it’s a really exciting challenge for us, we know the expectation is on the opposition and our focus is let’s get something from the game.a

“We’re going to have to be very good without the ball as we’re not going to have the ball loads. So we’ll have to be very, very disciplined, we need to be more aggressive than we were at the weekend and we need to retain a real threat when we do win the ball back.

“In the recent games against Palace, Liverpool at home, we’ve done that well, when we’ve won the ball back we’ve had a threat, had a purpose in our play so that’s something we’ve got to be really, really good at.

“It’s a hard game, we all know that, but like every team they’re going to give some spaces away, they have to, every team does. We’ll look to try and exploit any areas we can, we have a clear plan and we’ll try to carry it out as best as possible.”

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