Emile Smith Rowe gets Arsenal rockin’ and rolling on his return

One of the Emirates Stadium’s favourite ditties, to the tune of the Status Quo classic Rockin’ All Over the World, finishes by acclaiming “Saka and Emile Smith Rowe”. 

One of those players has done considerably more of the song’s heavy lifting over the past two years so, on a night that never really veered from the procedural, it was heartening to see the balance shift just a little. 

Defeating a limited, depleted Luton gave little cause for overexcitement but it did suggest the Arsenal faithful are not flogging an entirely dead horse by hailing two lavish homegrown talents in the same breath.

Smith Rowe’s descent from decisive sure thing to bit-part enigma has been a tough watch and owes, more than anything, to a dispiriting run of injuries. 

Last season he returned from groin surgery to discover Arsenal, for whom he had been a ray of light in two years of relative tedium, had kicked on without him. Arteta, never the keenest of rotators, has deployed him sparingly. Before this, his third top-flight start of the season, Smith Rowe had played 20 minutes of Premier League football since January.

So it was a boon to see him make a difference in a match that will linger in few memories but brought Arsenal three points closer to a prize that looks ever more attainable. Smith Rowe set their opening goal in train with his tenacity; he laid on the second with laudable composure and, for a 23-year-old who patently thrives on feeling loved, it will do no harm to have played a tangible part in shifting the tenor of a low-key evening.

In steering Arsenal to a featureless but potentially transformative point at Manchester City, Arteta had shown that, if any deities governing the title race frowned on his principles, he certainly had