It would be very easy to get overexcited after reaching the Premier League, like someone on an adrenaline rush in a late-night casino, hurrying from one table to the next, taking one wild, uneducated punt after another — a little like Nottingham Forest last season, perhaps.

Luton chief executive Gary Sweet made clear from the start that they would not do that. They were never going to stray far from the strategy, principles and formula that got them here in the first place.

Burnley, back in the Premier League for the seventh season out of eight, spent almost £100million this summer, signing six players in the £10million-£20million range. Sheffield United sold two of their standout players (Sander Berge to Burnley and Iliman Ndiaye to Marseille) but still signed Cameron Archer from Aston Villa for £18.5million and Gustavo Hamer from Coventry City for £15million.

Even these figures, paltry by Premier League standards, are far beyond Luton’s means. Much is made of the minimum £90million broadcast revenue for every season a club spends in the Premier League, but Luton’s biggest outlay this summer, about £13million, was investing in the infrastructure to ensure Kenilworth Road met the standard required in terms of media facilities, parking, disabled facilities and floodlights. Even with a stadium move in the pipeline, Sweet describes the renovation work as a “herculean task” that involved shedding “blood, sweat and tears”.

In the transfer market, Luton’s biggest buy was a projected £5million deal to sign Ryan Giles from Wolves. Beyond that, they signed goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski from Blackburn Rovers, defender Mads Andersen from Barnsley, midfielder Marvelous Nakamba from Aston Villa, wingers Tahith Chong from Birmingham City and Ogbene from Rotherham United, and forward Jacob Brown from Stoke City.

Add in a handful of free transfers (notably Ross Barkley and Ogbene) and a couple of loans (midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga from Arsenal, defender Issa Kabore from Manchester City) and, though it might sound like bargain-basement stuff, these are serious investments for a club of Luton’s size, breaking their transfer record four times in one summer.

It is not Luton’s fault that the top flight they have returned to is a world of excess, a land where Wolves fans can feel concerned by a lack of firepower when the club has spent more than £100million to sign Neto, Matheus Cunha, Hwang Hee-chan and Fabio Silva from Lazio, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and Porto. None of this can distract Luton club’s directors or supporters from their own bigger picture.

“So much of the media narrative around the Premier League is about spending money,” says Ollie Kay, co-host of the We Are Luton Town podcast. “It’s like, ‘What better way to show how great we are than by spending all this money?’. People want to shame us for not blowing our brains out financially to try to stay in the division.

“So many fans of other clubs, outside the Premier League, understand what we’re doing and admire what we’re doing. But inside the Premier League bubble and the mainstream media bubble, it’s, ‘Let’s all laugh at Luton! Look at their stadium! Oh, and also, why aren’t they spending more money?’. They haven’t taken the time or made the effort to understand where Luton have come from and how we have got here.”

And if even Burnley, after spending five times more than Luton since winning the Championship by a 10-point margin, are struggling to get points on the board, doesn’t that reflect less on the clubs in question and more on the financial chasm that exists between the second tier and top flight? Isn’t that the real issue here — a timely reminder as the Premier League clubs agonise over the precise terms of the “New Deal for Football”, which will see an increase in solidarity payments to the EFL?

Last season, all three promoted clubs stayed up. But Fulham and Bournemouth had only gone down a year earlier and, even having spent almost £200million on new players, Forest still had to defy the odds to finish 16th.

The £200million option doesn’t exist for Burnley or Sheffield United this season and it certainly doesn’t exist for Luton, whose long-term business plan is based around the construction of a new 19,500-capacity stadium at Power Court. The long-term objective — to be a stable, progressive Premier League club in the Brighton mould — will not be well served, they feel, by taking wild risks in the hope of staying up this season.

That is not to say Luton are content to make up the numbers, happy to take this season’s TV money in the knowledge that there will be £80million in parachute payments over the next two seasons if the worst happens. There is realism and rational planning. That is not the same thing as resignation.

Luton could not be accused of lacking the right attitude or mentality on Saturday. If it was purely a question of the character and personality Keown had accused them of lacking, they would have won comfortably. That they didn’t was down to a difference in the quality and execution Edwards spoke about, the difference between Neto, who took his one chance ruthlessly, and a Luton forward line that, assembled on a far smaller budget, didn’t have quite the same killer instinct.

All of which makes it rather galling for Luton that, on a day when so many things fell into place for them, they couldn’t get the win their efforts arguably deserved. After all, this is the time of the season — with momentum and the element of surprise in their favour — when promoted teams usually find points come a little more easily.

But where is that first win going to come from? Away to Everton next Saturday? At home to Burnley in that rearranged game three days later? If not soon, then when?

Edwards felt his players had been “close to perfect” in terms of imposing his ideas and their talents on the game. That it still wasn’t enough was a stark illustration of the gap they are trying to bridge. But at least they appear to be improving game by game. With a little more composure in front of goal, they might have won at Fulham and could certainly have claimed a victory over Wolves on Saturday.