Arsenal 1 Hull City 2
Hat’s off to Hull. Their first visit to The Emirates was like a breath of fresh air from the North Sea.
Mentally stronger than Arsenal yesterday, they came with a game plan, stuck to it, and with three up front, fortune favoured the brave.
Having said that, Arsenal played with Tuesday on their minds and ultimately it was poor finishing that ensured no points.
With two losses to Hull and Fulham already in six, is a Champions League place looking shaky?
It was the sort of game which the tight dribbling skills of Nasri, Rosicky and razor sharp finishing of Eduardo may have undone a resolute and at times packed Hull defence.
The reality was that Arsenal were lacklustre with passes sometimes going straight into touch. Denilson made some half tackles – not clearing cleanly like the long legged Vieira would have done and he had a couple of powderpuff shots. And it was noticeable how much the play stopped around van Persie who had to change feet – and often direction.
Hull doubled up on the flanks, pushing Walcott, Sagna, Clichy and Eboue inside into a sea of yellow and black. Aerial balls were swallowed up easily by Turner, Zayatte and McShane. And Arsenal didn’t have a plan C.
You see some stars at The Emirates these days. Rory McGrath was behind in one gate queue. Hello Rory, shouted one season ticket holder eight people back.
Then a distinguised geezer in a white jacket and black rimmed glasses commented to me about the difficulties of getting to the milk and sugar for his tea. “You’ve got a familiar face, Russell isn’t it? Err… Hunter”. “Yes I’ve got a column in the Sunday Times.” We had a quick chat about the Ham & High.
Above was a whining helicopter with a red and white banner: “Save money with Quantas”. Obviously they haven’t read James Lovelock’s book about the survival chances of humans on the planet. However, on with game.
It was an even start. Hull were well organised. Arsenal probing. Fabregas had the first chance from a deflection running to him on the edge of the area. But he’s lost his scoring touch, and it went well wide.
Sagna crossed from the right from a patient build-up, Adebayor got the ball in the back of the net, but pushed Turner and handled.
Eboue cut in from the right and fired goalward, taking a defection.
Hull broke quickly from the corner with Geovanni and Cousin linking up dangerously.
Denilson and Adebayor linked up and set Eboue free, but he elected to pass, having space to shoot – lighting the touch-paper of frustration, to a multitude of boos.
A Hull corner at the start of the second was flicked from Adebayor to Boateng, whose shot defelected off Fabregas over the bar. A big warning.
However Arsenal broke quickly from a Hull attack with Fabregas sending van Persie away who sent a wide ball for Walcott, who ran to the area, dribbling on the outside for once, cutting in from the bye-line, hitting Adebayor with Fabregas getting a touch on to McShane for the opener. It was the wrong time to score in this game – with Tuesday, Arsenal naturally took their foot off the pedal.
Van Persie though set up Eboue – who again didn’t shoot but backheeled to Adebayor whose shot was deflected over by Turner.
On 61 the ball came to the right footed Geovanni. Boateng‘s run took Sagna away, Walcott stood off instead of trying to track or block or at best show him to the outside, and the Brazilian let rip with an outswerving shot into the top corner. A fabulous strike. Again Arsenal had been warned in the first half when he cut in and fired over.
Six minutes later, a Cousin shot was deflected. From the Dawson corner, Cousin ran across a static Gallas and got the first touch, with Fabregas unable to stop the ball going in the far corner of the net. [When are Arsenal going to play a big centre back who can attack the ball?]
Gallas nearly made amends, as is his wont when Arsenal are in trouble, from a Fabregas cross, but his luck was out as it hit the bar and came down quickly hitting susbtitute Vela‘s knee and going wide.
Bendtner set up Fabregas whose long shot was going in – but for a leaping tiger save from Myhill.
Van Persie had a wonderful chance of an equaliser, but he shot wide with his right.
And in injury time Toure hit a half volley wildly wide. And van Persie shot over after a neat Bendtner chest-down.
Wenger admitted there could have be complacency creeping in, which he said was hard to accept given the situation last year; and he said it was not the sort of focus needed to win football games.
On conceding three times from corners this season, he said it was more to do with desire and commitment than spending hours on the training ground.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Eboue (Bendtner 69min), Fabregas, Denilson, Walcott (Vela 77min), Adebayor, Van Persie
Hull City: Myhill, McShane, Zayatte, Turner, Dawson, Marney, Boateng (Garcia 76min), Geovanni (Hughes 72min), Ashbee, Cousin (Mendy 80min), King