A Luton Town v Arsenal top-flight clash leading up to Christmas – as on Tuesday night – immediately takes me back to 1990-91, my first season watching football.
The sides met on Saturday, December 8, 1990 at Kenilworth Road.
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At the time, Sports Stadium – the Irish imitation of Grandstand – used to show Saturday 3pm games and this was broadcast, with John Dreyer scoring a late equaliser from a penalty for Luton after Alan Smith had given Arsenal the lead.
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In keeping with the anti-Arsenal bias, Tony Adams was sent off for the foul leading to the penalty and he was sent to prison as a result (we may be conflating events).
A year later, the clubs also met in Luton in December – the home side winning 1-0 on Boxing Day, though it was not enough to save them from relegation. That result made it ten straight visits to Kenilworth Road for Arsenal without a win – eight league games and two FA Cup ties – and you have to go back to January 1984 for the Gunners’ last win there.
Of course, during all that time, Luton’s home kit was white – see here for a retrospective of their first spell with Umbro – but now they favour orange for their primary strip.
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For Tuesday’s Premier League game game, it is expected that Arsenal will wear their yellow change kit, even if there is an argument that the dark green third would be better.
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If yellow is to be worn, the yellow change shorts could be used to aid distinction but Arsenal tend not to don alternative shorts or socks nowadays unless forced to.
It’s a bit reminiscent of the last time Arsenal were away to a team of a similar hue, the 2010-11 trip to Blackpool (Wolverhampton Wanderers’ old gold and Hull City’s amber come down on the yellow side of the spectrum and red is acceptable there).
Back then, the Gunners’ 2009-10 navy away was officially the third strip but it was not used at all during that campaign and there is a suggestion that there was not even a set in the kit-room.
For the trip to Bloomfield Road, they also wore yellow against the hosts’ tangerine, although they did switch socks from yellow to redcurrant.
The only time prior to 2023-24 that Arsenal played away to an orange-clad Luton in the league was 1974-75 – the Hatters’ Admiral home kit of the time is the inspiration for the current strip.
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With their yellow second strip not considered a suitable choice for Arsenal, they wore plain white shirts – most likely the same set used against Blackpool in 1970 – along with their home shorts and socks.
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After that match, it would be another 20 years before Arsenal wore a third shirt in a competitive game.
OMG what a game it was!!! Without Raya’s disasterclass there’s no way this game would as memorable as it turned out to be. Without a doubt Gunners were all over Luton but Raya’s shocking performance gifted Hatters the lifeline.
But yeah, let’s talk about the main topic – the kits. Gotta say Arsenal only had bad options for this game. Home kit obviously not suitable while the yellow snake kit wasn’t ideal either. For normal people (no CVD issues) the dark green third kit would’ve been the best option but dark green against the shade of orange Hatters wear is just horrendous for colour blinded. Checked via filters Luton-M’boro game from 21/22 season and my god it was terrible. Guess from CVD POV the away kit with yellow (or even white!) change shorts would’ve been the best choice out of bad punch. I personally would’ve gone with dark green-white-white. Third kit was used with white change socks (not home socks) vs Sevilla so why not use white change shorts for third kit as well.