Luton chief on 'brilliant' stat that has Hatters defender on the same assists as Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea stars

Luton boss Rob Edwards thought it was ‘brilliant’ that centre back Reece Burke is joint top of the assist charts for the Hatters this season, with the same amount as high profile players such as Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus.

The centre back gained his fourth of the campaign during Town's trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend when he nodded Alfie Doughty’s cross down for Carlton Morris to athletically volley beyond keeper Jose Sa to make it 2-1 on the afternoon. That followed on from his first of the season when setting up Elijah Adebayo for his maiden top flight goal against Burnley in October, plus getting the final touch when Tahith Chong pulled one back in the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa in March.

Burke then got first contact on a corner that saw Luke Berry sweep home his equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest recently, as Saturday's effort put him on the same number of assists as Town team-mates Carlton Morris and Ross Barkley, plus a clutch of other Premier League stars including Tom Cairney, Alejandro Garnacho, Nicolas Jackson, Gabriel Martinelli, Jean-Philippe Mateta, John McGinn, Kaoru Mitoma, Jacob Murphy, Michael Olise, Raheem Sterling and Harry Wilson.

Finding that out in his pre-Everton press conference, Edwards said: “That’s great that, what a stat! That’s brilliant! Burkey’s brilliant and someone who can play in a few different positions, but he just loves running, so sometimes, I know that was a set-piece, but he can find himself in some strange positions at times.

"We kind of encourage that as it can cause the opposition problems as well. You think back to Huddersfield away last year when he chipped in with a really important goal and we reminded him of that this week. He’s someone if we can keep him performing, staying on the pitch, week in week out, there’s a really good player there in Reece Burke.”

The former West Ham and Hull City defender appears to be over the injury problems that blighted the middle part of his season, now starting 10 out of Luton’s last 11 matches in all competitions, only missing the 2-0 loss at Arsenal, going on to begin 14 from the club's last 18 in total. Burke had only started seven of the club’s first 23 fixtures after suffering with yet more injuries that have affected him in all three of his seasons at Kenilworth Road since arriving in the summer of 2021. Asked about his recent durability, Edwards added: “He does a lot of good work, especially along with the staff.

"He’s taken a lot of responsibility as well Burkey and sometimes with him it’s reining him in a little bit as well. Especially as a centre back, he can churn out some distances in training and it’s just managing that a little bit as well. I’d rather it that then trying to get people going, saying, ‘come on, are you going to run around today?’ with Burkey, it’s just a little bit sometimes less is more.”