RICE GOAL RESCUES ARSENAL!

Hello, everybody. Welcome to That's Football. Absolutely unbelievable. Arsenal, late winner against Luton, 4-3. Your hearts have got to go out for Luton. They've scored three times. They are seconds away from a very, very good draw. And Declan Rice pops up from an Odegaard cross and wins it for Arsenal. I tell you what, it's the tale of two extremes, isn't it? That point for Luton and what the belief they could have took from that in a relegation battle they're expected to lose, and then Arsenal in a title race where they cannot afford to be dropping points to Luton when they've got Man City and Liverpool on their heels. And that few seconds has a massive impact on both ends of the table. Look, I want to say straight off the off, if this game had ended in a draw, I would have been doing this match reaction, calling out more shocking officiating by the referees and VAR. And I want to get it in early because I just think it's a bit like when Kovacic should have been sent off against Arsenal, and Arsenal still won. It sort of overshadowed the fact that it was shocking officiating. Well, I think again here, I watched the Manchester derby. I'm sure many of you saw it. Hardly any contact on Rodri. He's never going to win the ball anyway. Hoyland basically brushes his chest. He goes down, VAR gives a penalty, goes looking for it. Tonight, we see a cross coming into the box. Gabriel's trying to win the header, and he gets pulled away from the arm by the Luton defender. Now, it's very, very, very, very soft. But to not review that and give a penalty when other clubs in the title race are getting penalties as well, imagine Deccan Rice doesn't get that last-second winner. You're sat here going exactly what I've just said there. That is, you know, what can Arsenal do, though? What can Arteta do? At the end of the day, they were that close to having a major, you know, inconsistent bad decision given against them. I think it's important to get it in because it should have been a penalty, and Arsenal very, very nearly dropped points because they didn't get that. But they didn't. Incredible game as well. I mean, I think going back to the game, Arsenal deserve amazing amounts of credit. I said at the weekend, Liverpool were incredible to win late like they did. 3-2 down, or 2-1 down, or whatever it was, with, you know, minutes to go, and they turned it into a win. And I said at the time that those wins are what win titles. I've seen it enough with United over the years. You think you win titles by beating Arsenal or beating Liverpool, but actually you win titles where you just have a bad day at the office You look at your fixtures at the start of the season and you'll go, we'll beat Luton home and away, we'll beat Sheffield United home and away, we'll beat Palace home and away, and I guarantee you, you don't beat them all home and away. One of them, there'll be a night like tonight where things go wrong, you're not quite at the races, and you draw, and you drop two points. And they're the games that cost you titles. So same with Liverpool at home to Fulham at the weekend. They're the games that win you titles. And certainly Arsenal tonight, you wouldn't think that Luton is going to be a game that's going to win you a title. But when you've watched that game, you've rescued three points from, you know, in the dying embers of the game. That should have been a draw. You've rescued it. So those three points become massive in your title race now. And look, do I think it was deserved? At the end of the day, I think it's, the game finishes, it's 4-3 to Arsenal. I think that's the right scoreline. You can feel, you know, you can feel really badly for Luton, but I don't think there's an injustice there. Six minutes of added time, and it happens beyond the six minutes. You could moan about that, but that happens every game. There's always added time after added time, and there always has been. So, you know, maybe there's some frustration there from Luton, but I don't think you can, I don't think that really holds up. Across the game, I think Luton did everything they could do. But there is one big factor here. If Luton had got the draw, not only would the penalty be a big talking point, but so would David Rea be a big talking point. I mean, what do you think about the goalkeeping situation as an Arsenal fan or as a non-Arsenal fan? For me, he's cost Arsenal two goals tonight. The first goal, he can't do anything about. The second goal, he's got caught under the cross from the corner. And the third goal, you can't get beat from there. It's ridiculous. And so he's cost them two goals, and Luton weren't good enough that they were going to go and score another two. So Arsenal have conceded three because of David Rea. At max, they should have conceded two, and that would have had them the game won anyway. So David Rea has had a bad game today. So Luton can say they were unlucky, and they were, but in a way, they're a bit lucky that Rea made two big mistakes. With regards to the game, Luton are going to need a bit of luck against teams like that. And I thought what Luton did well today, and I think they will go down, but I think what they did today was they treated it like a cup game. And as I said on the watch along, if Luton were playing Arsenal in the FA Cup, you wouldn't be surprised if Luton got a draw because they're a championship side. I know they're a Premier League club, but if they were in the championship, it's not a huge jump to think that Luton could, you know, treat it like a cup final and get a draw. And they did, and they very nearly did do that. But they haven't, and that's the bottom line. And Arsenal, these are the sort of momentum wins that will focus their mind. They'll be over the moon with that win, but they'll also be, we were really close to dropping points that we can't afford to drop, and they'll learn from that, like they're learning from last season. With the Rea situation, I mean, I think the only people who'll be disappointed will be the press. I mean, you know, Ramsdale may as well be on the pitch. The camera was going to him that much, but not for one minute, and get your comments in relation to what you think, not for one minute do I think that Rea will be dropped for Ramsdale. I think that this is just media thinking that they can dictate who plays in goal for Arsenal because one of them's got a British passport. And this is just media trying to create a situation. We had it at Man United for the last few years. They were fixated with David de Gea and trying to get him out of United. And it worked in the end, but David Rea is Mikel Arteta's number one. When he came into the club, there was this talk about you can't have two goalkeepers and you can't rotate. And Arteta was playing the media. He said that because he didn't want to come out and say Ramsdale's out and Rea's in. He wanted people to see that. And at no point has he rotated his goalkeepers. And he's not about to drop Rea when his team have won to bring Ramsdale back in when he's clearly replaced Ramsdale with Rea for a footballing reason in relation to how Rea plays the game. So Rea will still be the goalkeeper. There is no prospect of Ramsdale coming in. Arteta, to his credit, has brought Rea in and stuck with Rea. And it'll be devastating for Ramsdale and it'll be devastating for Ramsdale fans. But, I mean, Pep did this with goalkeepers, he did it with Joe Hart. Like, Rea is Arteta's number one. You can put as many camera shots on Ramsdale as you like and try and force this movement that Rea needs to come out of the team because he's made a couple of mistakes. Alisson makes mistakes. Edison made two mistakes at the weekend. He won't be dropped by Pep or Klopp. And Rea won't be dropped by Arteta. And nor should he be. He's gone with a number one and that number one needs to be back. And Arteta will do it. I mean, get in the comments if you disagree with me on that one, but I don't think so for one minute. And as for Arsenal, I still do not like, considering how close that game was, another talking point, I still don't think Arsenal look balanced when they have Odegaard and Havertz in the team. Watch them against Wolves, they played a lot better in that first half when it was Odegaard, Trozad and Reiss. I know why they probably did it because it was Luton and he was thinking there's going to be a lot of goals in the game, but it didn't work. I know Havertz scored, but it's chaotic. They've got a much better balance when Odegaard's the further forward attacker and he's got a bit of balance behind him. And I think we saw that again today. And remember, Arsenal got a massive game against Villa on Saturday night. Anyway, get your comments in below. Incredible, incredible again. Incredible title race we've got at the moment as well. Get your thoughts in below. Did you think it was a penalty? What do you think of the goalkeeper situation? What are you thinking about Havertz and Odegaard? And how do you feel about the game? How do you feel for Luton after that? Did they deserve something out of it or were they hanging on at the end? Thanks everyone for watching. 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