Mpanzu not bothered by the doubters as Town kick off top flight campaign

Town midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu isn’t bothered at all by the Hatters having their chances of Premier League survival being rated as slim to non-existent by those outside of Kenilworth Road, having reached the top flight himself despite being doubted during the majority of his career.

The 29-year-old former West Ham youngster has been with Luton every step of the way as they climbed from non-league to the top flight in under a decade.

Each time Town moved up a level there were some who didn’t think Mpanzu had what it took to adapt, but adapt he did and like the club itself, has gone on to flourish in his new surroundings.

Ahead of running out at the Amex for Luton’s first ever Premier League contest, the majority of pundits and opposing supporters expect the Hatters to be back in the Championship next term, but that was of no concern to the midfielder, who said: “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see it, everyone sees everything, but does it bother me, not really man, they can write Luton off, everyone thinks we’re going to finish 19th, 20th, it doesn't really matter to us.

“We’re going to try and perform as well as we can and hopefully this season is positive for us.

“Personally, people have doubted my abilities and I've just proved everyone wrong, so I know that Luton Town as a team, as a club, as a town can prove people wrong and hopefully we can do that at the end of May.”

Luton have a difficult start this afternoon as they head to a Brighton & Hove Albion side who finished a magnificent sixth last year, with Roberto De Zerbi leading the club to a first ever campaign of European football.

Mpanzu continued: “It’s tough, they’ve got real good quality and it shows as they finished sixth last season.

"They’re in the Europa League, so it’s going to be a real, real tough game at the Amex.

"We’ll be compact as Rob (Edwards) said to us, we need to be clinical when we get our chances, defend the box well, get up to the ball and hopefully we have a positive result.

"Even if we come away with a point it’s going to be a positive point in the direction of staying in the Premier League this season.”

Mpanzu himself will make his own piece of history on the south coast this afternoon by becoming the only player to have represented the same club from the conference all the way through the leagues and to the top flight of English football.

On now looking at a fixture list that contains some of the best teams in the world, rather than the Dartford’s or Alfreton’s that Luton were up against when he first joined, he said: “It’s what everyone wants, everyone wants to play against the best teams in the world.

"A lot of the teams we’re going to be playing against, the Chelsea’s, the Man United’s, the Arsenal’s, the City’s, the Liverpool’s, it’s what we all want to play against.

"Hopefully we play well against those teams, all we can do is try our hardest and put 100 percent effort in.

"If the fans know we’re doing that, support us, then we can be proud of ourselves whenever we finish.”

Naturally everyone at Kenilworth Road wants that to be above the dotted line for relegation, but even if things don’t go as Town want this term, then Mpanzu knows the club will be well positioned to try and get back to where they desire next season, adding: “It’s about doing the business on the pitch and hopefully if we do that, the positive results come and we’ll be laughing at the end of the season by staying in the league.

"If it doesn’t come to that we know we’ve put 100 percent effort and we’ll come back next season strong even if it’s not in the Premier League, come back in the Championship and hopefully get back promoted.

"Hopefully it doesn’t come back to that though and we’ll have enough points to stay in the league.”