Japanese international enjoying every minute of his first taste of Premier League life with Luton

Despite what has been a fairly harsh baptism of fire into life as a Premier League player, Luton wingback Daiki Hashioka is enjoying every moment of his time in the top tier of English football as he wants to make sure it is where both he and the Hatters are once more next season.

The Japanese international was Town's major January transfer window signing earlier in the campaign, joining from Belgian club Sint-Truiden for an undisclosed fee. He got his first look at his new surroundings when coming on in the 6-2 FA Cup defeat against Manchester City at Kenilworth Road, before earning his top flight debut after being introduced as a left-sided centre half during the second half of the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa.

He was called on again as Luton drew 1-1 at Crystal Palace, before a tough full debut in the same role, Town letting a 3-0 half time lead slip to lose 4-3 at AFC Bournemouth, Hashioka taken off just after the Cherries had drawn level with 20 minutes of the second period gone. Back on the bench against Nottingham Forest, his next outing came when brought on as a half time sub at Spurs on Saturday, the Hatters yet again seeing an interval advantage become a defeat, eventually going down 2-1.

Despite that, Hashioka insists he is happy with his decision to move to England, and Bedfordshire in particular, as speaking ahead of tonight's trip to Arsenal, he said: “I knew the standard of the Premier League would be very high before coming here but I am enjoying every minute of it. Hopefully we can stay up and we can be back here next season as well.

"I believe that we are capable of staying up, so the most important thing is to focus on each match and to try and win each match. Although we’ve got lots of injuries, if we could win against Arsenal, it would give us a huge boost going into the next match against Bournemouth, so we need to keep our confidence high."

Hashioka who won his eighth cap for Japan recently in their 1-1 World Cup qualifying win over North Korea was frustrated that he wasn’t able to help the Hatters to a precious victory in north London on Saturday, or even a battling point after Tahith Chong put them ahead early on. Entering the fray at the break due to Reece Burke’s Achilles injury, Luton were soon pegged back when Issa Kabore shanked a clearance into his own net with just seven minutes of the second period gone.

Town then dug in resolutely as it looked like Rob Edwards’ side might ​have ground out a result to boost their efforts to stay up, but with both Chong and Alfie Doughty having to go off, their resistance was broken with four minutes to go, as when a corner broke down, the hosts broke with unerring efficiency, Heung-Min Son’s shot deflecting off the unlucky Hashioka and past Thomas Kaminski.

It’s something that Town need to put behind them quickly though, as the defender added: “After coming on the pitch leading 1-0, it’s really disappointing personally and as a team to lose 2-1. If we can keep a clean sheet in matches like this, I think the team will improve a lot. If we concede goals in the early stages of the second half like that, it will give momentum to the other team, so if we could have kept them to zero up until the last stages it would have been a different match.

“At that stage of the game, we would have taken a 1-1 draw, so when they started the counter attack I think one of us should have stopped Son from getting up the pitch and then even with fouling him. I believe that we are capable of staying up, so the most important thing is to focus on each match and to try and win each match. What happened today is already in the past, we switch and we need to focus on how to win the next game as there’s a lot of matches coming up. There’s no time to dwell on it.”