Trossard has had some lovely touches so far. He’s definitely got the beating of his man on that side

2-0 half time. Just as we would have wanted it. Dominated the game. Taken our chances and no big scares.

We’ll need everyone in the run in so it’s good the players coming in have performed well in a confident 2-0 half time lead. Didn’t want to have to rely on the bench to win this game and hopefully we don’t have to.

2-0 is a dangerous lead for the nerves so go and kill the game with a 3rd then rest some legs

Just seen the villa starting 11, quite lucky for City to get them when they’re missing 5-6 of their regular starters and best players

Emile Smith Rowe involved in both goals. Shame we can't keep him.

Seems to want to show what a clever little dick he is on the ball , a quick transference at one stage might have paid dividends but he had to do a little bit of pointless razzle dazzle .
I hope he gets moved on in the summer , 25 mill would be nice .

Good to see Emile Smith Rowe growing into the game. Hope he gets a goal tonight.

Nelson is too tentative. Here is his chance to shine and he prefers to take the easy route of passing the ball back.

Why cant we keep him ....?
If we need to reduce the squad I'd move Nelson , Nketiah , Vieira and Zinchenko before him .

I wish he'd try to beat his man or play a risky pass, instead of just recycling.

He's not alone , probably fifteen minutes of that half involved unambitious safety first backwards sideways sh &&^^^%*** that does my head in .
We really need to put at least four passed this mob .

Double post somehow ... blame Warrior

I wonder if we'll see Timber this season?

I could see Nelson coming off soon to give us a bit more zip, he’s trying hard but seems to slow down a lot of the attacks.

Would probably expect Emile Smith Rowe to come off too just through a bit of lack of match fitness would be tough for him to go the full 90

We don’t need the bench to win the game but I’d be bringing on the big guns for the final 25 to see it out.
Martinelli for Nelson and Rice for Emile Smith Rowe

No need for that Havertz.

Rice and Nketiah on for Partey and Havertz.

If Luton have a go then we’re going to need something from Nketiah, he needs to show some sharpness

Sometimes players in Reiss Nelson's situation are more worried about making a mistake than making an impact.

Barkley is still a good player. Still good enough to play on the bench for us.

It would be nice if we got another goal. I can't imagine Liverpool getting less than 3 or more goals tomorrow.

Job done. Forgettable game. Clean sheet again. Rotated heavily and did enough without having to expend too much energy.

One thing about a busy schedule other run in is there will be games where you’re tired and need to rest some players so may not be as sharp or fluent. The best thing for this is a solid defence, you can build off the clean sheet and know that 1 goal may be enough.
Of the 3 teams going for the title we seem the strongest at keeping clean sheets in any given game. I can envisage a few 1-0 wins in the run in even against teams we think we should beat more comfortably

.
What a terrible second half , to treat a game so dismissively cruise around with so many non effective passes against such weak opposition ... a traversty .

Some might point to the multiple team changes as a reason but Man City have rested de Bruyne and Haarland and they are still having a go at Villa when 4-1 up .

An absolute pile of crap underlining why the manager is correct in ignoring his bench.

Emile Smith Rowe, Nelson and Nketiah are all useless

Mission accomplishment. We put the game relatively to bed fairly early. Although had they pulled one goal back it would have been dicey.

It gets rough from here on in though. No easy matches for a few weeks and they are coming every 3 or 4 days.

But yet if those rested legs, or the training session pace we played the second half helps us squeeze out a win v Brighton then all good. Of Luton’s 19 defeats in the prem that was only their 6th by a 2+ goal margin. They’ve been competitive in virtually every game.

The Villa line up and subs were interesting. They have injuries and suspensions but left Torres, Moreno, Tielemans and Bailey on the bench. Emery also subbed off Douglas Luiz.

Feels a bit like a game Emery knew he wouldn’t win so had taken the defeat before the game to rest some players before the weekend’s game. He has the right to do exactly what he wants and he thinks is the best for his team but let’s see what line up he puts out v us in 2 weeks time.

There have been a few times in the prem when a team is so good that managers accept that game will be a defeat even with their best team, so rotate and rest - it’s a kind of artificial benefit of being the best, you can get even easier games than normal

Harsh on Emile Smith Rowe (and Eddie wasn't actually bad either). Also, we have to use our squad. There are just too many games.

We showed in the period before we scored that that lot could attack reasonably fluently.

Then we got into the dreaded --slow, pass it around the back, draw them in, then pass it slowly forward giving them enough time to get back, the pass it back to Raya who then hoicks --mode. When we do get into attacking positions, our players want an extra touch, or are looking to win a free kick.

The proverbial handbrake, and I can't help thinking this is at least in part coming from Arteta.

It's awful. We made Luton look decent. A better team would have punished us (as we've seen too many times this season).

It was very pragmatic and efficient and they barely laid a finger on us. Maybe the alarm I was experiencing in the second half was misplaced. However, we do seem to struggle a bit with our playing out from the back.

Yeah, yeah, they are all tough games in a title run. But some are easier than others. Who is possibly/probably going to be our toughest league game to get a win?

1. Man Utd away

2. Tottenham away

3. Brighton away

4. Chelsea home

5. other

Liverpools next match might get them in a bit of strife as Sheffield looks to be right at the top of the table.

Edit - Oops sorry - My phone was upside down.

Not that I gave Sheff Utd any hope tonight but I did hope their gk would kick a clearance straight at Nunez and trickle in to the net

May be very minor but after today the top 3 all have 8 games left. City and Liverpool have 5 away and 3 at home, whilst we have 4 home and 4 away.

I know we've got a few tough away games but I just can't see City or Liverpool coming close to dropping any points at home - the hope is away and they've got 5 chances.

Man U come back from 2-0 down away to Chelsea to now lead 3-2.
We've got to play both of these teams, clearly both are dangerous and have individuals who can do the sublime - but they are both chaotic, our overall team play, structure, press and control 'should' mean we beat both

Liverpool win as expected but I thought they might make a dent in to our goal difference which they didn't by only matching our +2 increase in the last game.

wow, what an end to the chelsea v man u game. Chelsea score on 90+10 and 90+12 to surely win it 4-3

Hahaha United. Wonder what’s next for Ten Hag. He’s been there what 2 years? and they’re going nowhere.

Sadly can’t see them putting up any opposition against Liverpool.

And Emile Smith Rowe got motm.

Ten Hag will continue blaming everyone and anything else other than himself. A sad sod of a manager. Man up, and take it on the chin!

Taking another look at the fixtures left and think we have by far the hardest run in. Liverpool 2nd and Man City the easiest by a mile.

Gonna be a bloody nervous, hide behind the couch 6 weeks where one slip could be the end of any challenge.

I do hope he stays a bit longer. Seeing that cheating, sniveling in the ref’s ear Fernandes looking all $@$*#y gives me endless amounts of satisfaction. Probably my most hated player.

Before his injury, Emile Smith Rowe wasn't getting the amount of minutes I thought he earned. Hopefully he'll get more the remainder of the season. I think most of us think he could do well off the bench.