Mpanzu believes Luton’s Kenilworth Road factor will be crucial in the scrap for relegation.
Pelly Ruddock, a midfielder for Luton, feels that home advantage may be crucial for the Hatters in their fight to stay in the Premier League this season, since Town has three of their final five games at home.
With five games remaining in the season, Town is two points behind Everton, who were destroyed 6-0 by Chelsea on Monday night, and one point behind Nottingham Forest. Town has three home games remaining in their schedule, which looks favorable on paper. The first one is this weekend at Kenilworth Road when Brentford visits, where they will also host Everton and Fulham.native land
The closest rivals Forest only have two games in front of their own supporters, and those games are against Chelsea, who have started to show some sort of form under Mauricio Pochettino and include a certain red-hot Cole Palmer in their ranks. This means that Forest may need to improve on an away record that has seen them win just three of their last 34 road games in order to stay up.
Everton, on the other hand, has won four of their seven games played at Goodison Park. Following Forest, they host Sheffield United, Liverpool, and Brentford, offering Sean Dyche’s team a genuine chance to stay in the top division. Mpanzu stated, “We have five cup finals,” indicating that he is aware that the games in Bedfordshire will be crucial to their own chances of surviving. I believe we can win every game we play, so hopefully we can do that and we’ll still be in the Premier League on May 19.
“We are aware of our strength and our ability to maximize our efforts and points at home. Since Brentford hasn’t played too poorly, we know how important our home games are to us. Since nobody enjoys visiting Kenilworth Road, perhaps we can take advantage of this and win some points. Both at home and away, the supporters will be there for us, and hopefully they will bring the fire when we play Brentford.
“As a club, we’re performing better than anybody anticipated. The squad has been doing admirably because despite everyone’s predictions that they would be demoted by December or January, they are still in with a chance to survive with five games remaining.
Even though Mpanzu has accomplished more than he could have ever dreamed in his ten years at the club—becoming the first player to go from the Conference to the Premier League with the same team and only the 11th person to reach 400 appearances—he still lacks the coveted “banger,” which is scoring a goal in the top flight. On Saturday, he came on during Luton’s 5-1 loss to Manchester City.
The midfielder would be happier if that was the goal that kept the Hatters ahead, stating: “You never know, I could have to chat to the Fulham goalie! It would be an incredible accomplishment if I could score a goal in the Premier League, but winning the games is our primary priority. For me, it’s about the team right now, remaining in the league for another season, so staying in the Premier League would be the best thing for us. The squad has been doing admirably, and we’re outperforming everyone’s expectations and still have a chance to live.
The reduction of Luton’s injury list, which resulted in 11 players missing the team’s journey to the Etihad last weekend, is one item that might eventually work in their favor. Issa Kabore, whose absence was caused by the Premier League winners agreeing to his loan contract, will undoubtedly return, and Mpanzu is expecting further reinforcements for the match against the Bees.
Town has managed to score goals against Pep Guardiola’s champions this past weekend and has only failed to score against Arsenal in recent weeks and months, despite their high number of absentees. “We always can score any goal in any match,” Mpanzu continued. Although we’ve scored a lot of goals, we’ve also given up a lot, so the balance hasn’t been achieved. However, we play in a lot of games frequently, so in our first Premier League season, it’s fantastic for us to be doing that.”However, there have been a lot of long-term injuries, much like the season we lost to Huddersfield (during the play-offs). It’s been extremely difficult because Browny (Jacob Brown), Marv (Marvelous Nakamba), and Amari’i (Bell) have been out. However, with a healthy squad, I believe we can succeed and I hope that certain players will return to the field sooner rather than later. Hopefully, we can maintain a close game until we get our entire team back and can really push for it.
