Denilson took matters into his own hands and unleashed a swerving shot that Myhill could not deal with, his parry fell to Bendtner who had the presence of mind to run in on Denilson’s shot and he got his rewards

Match Review – Hull City 1 Arsenal 2 – Premier League

I have seen that end of a game so many times in recent years. The game all square and one side pushing and probing until finally grabbing the late winner. It has usually come from Manchester United during one of their title winning seasons. The stuff of champions, you can never write off United, they should their mettle. That is what the pundits say, so we should incorporate those exact sayings when it comes to Arsenal.

Hull City (a) has been one of the fixtures I have looked at during the run in and thought ooh, that could be tricky. I felt the same against Stoke City at the Britannia and we have come away from those two tough challenges with six points.

With Chelsea taking apart West Ham earlier in the day, it was left to Arsene’s weary troops to provide another big performance to fend off the relegation strugglers.

Many of our injury doubts before the game managed to make it, Tomas Rosicky being the exception, his groin strain clearly not worth risking. The team was very similar to the one that demolished Porto on Tuesday, Emmanuel Eboue, who had a splendid cameo in the Champions League game, started on the right of the Gunners attack.

All of a sudden it looks like the team have enjoyed the taste of early goals, Bendtner’s early strike against Porto was followed up with another from Andrey Arshavin yesterday. It was what the Gunners deserved after their football from the first minute looked slick and bright. The goal started all the way back from a Vermaelen free kick, our passes were quick, forward and played very early. I have enjoyed Arshavin’s willingness to run at the opposition inside their own penalty box. Both against Porto and Hull he used a mixture of skill and luck along with determination to get the ball first. The ball Ping-ponged off the Hull City defenders and Arshavin’s feet, the Russian got there first and hit a low shot past Myhill.

A great start, if we can continue at this rate then we can kill the game off because Hull are not dealing with our quick football.

I could see from the opening three minutes that the pitch was awful, short passes were bobbling all over the place, is that acceptable at such a high level? I would expect Division one sides to be able to produce pitches that a football can move along the ground in a straight line.

Is it acceptable that a Premier League (not for long I hope) pitch can be used for Rugby? It is absolutely absurd.

Wenger said in the post match interview that his team took their feet off the gas after the first goal which is a shame given the importance of every game but it would be extremely unfair not to take the midweek game into consideration. Playing against a side who have had longer to prepare and rest cannot be underestimated.

Nevertheless it was Arsenal who continued to fashion chances on the Hull City goal. Then came the first controversial moment of the match. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was standing in a clear offside position when the ball was flicked to him, he got ahead of Sol Campbell who came in with a somewhat clumsy challenge. It was certainly not a goalscoring chance as the Dutchman lost all control of the ball but it was a penalty, although it should have never got to that stage had the linesman..sorry assistant referee done his job correctly.

Jimmy Bullard lashed the penalty high past Almunia for an undeserved equaliser.

The game changed at that point, Hull had got back into the game and mentally it gave them a boost while Arsenal had lost a little of the early spark. Arshavin had taken over the mantle from Nicklas Bendtner, unfortunately it was the Bendtner of Burnley and not of Porto.

I am sure the uneven surface did not help but in hindsight the better option may have been not attempting to hit the ball first time on an uncontrollable pitch. Arshavin had fired high and not so handsome on two occasions, four minutes apart. In the middle of that Dawson went into the book for a late lunge on Denilson, a challenge that he was never going to make and he would have known that. Hull City were in that frame of mind during the course of the 90 minutes. Nicklas Bendtner and George Boateng were also both yellow carded for an off the ball incident that involved shirt pulling, slapping and eye poking. The usual fun and games that you see in day to day life.

In truth, Boateng should have been shown the red card there and then, I doubt that the rule books state that poking an opposition player in the eye is worthy of a yellow card. We wouldn’t have to wait long for the experienced Dutchman was sent his marching orders. Sagna cut inside and Boateng’s foot was extremely high and caught our full back in the knee. What on earth is your foot doing at someone’s knee when they have the ball on the ground? Ridiculous.

One can only assume that these teams have watched so many unpunished challenges on our players, that the rules no longer apply against Arsenal, or so they are lead to believe.

At half time I was hoping that our extra man would be far too much for them to cope with and that our motivation would see the game swing back in our favour as early as it did in the first. That was not going to be the case, Hull City raised their game and threw everything at stopping us from playing.

Five minutes into the second half Sol Campbell went in for a 50:50 with Kamil Zayatte, Campbell’s challenge was hard but low and fair and won the ball cleanly. Both players were sprinting after the ball to make the decisive touch of the ball, given the location of the ball on the pitch, both players momentum meant that it was a strong encounter. Zayatte came off worse and eventually had to go off.

I must admit, I am quite surprised that not more has been made of this, not because of the challenge but because I imagined that many would love to throw it into the face of Wenger, especially after the Ramsey incident.

Theo Walcott replaced Emmanuel Eboue who I thought played very well once again. His ball retention is very underrated and his ability to drive in between players is valuable to the team but Theo was fresh and his pace could stretch the ten men.

Theo almost made the perfect start, when he dashed onto a Bendtner flick and zoomed into the penalty area, his cut back was just a little behind Nasri who inadvertently poked the ball away from Diaby’s path to Arshavin who blasted high and wide over the bar. What a great chance wasted.

Time was ticking away and chances were not coming on a regular basis. We couldn’t afford to be this wasteful with only 22 minutes remaining.

Bendtner missed two more chances, one high and one blocked following more good work from Walcott who looks like he has found and kept his mojo in a safe place.

Into time added on Denilson took matters into his own hands and unleashed a swerving shot that Myhill could not deal with, his parry fell to Bendtner who had the presence of mind to run in on Denilson’s shot and he got his rewards.

Before the goal, my nerves were shot, headlines flashed through my head, was this it? We could still do it but it would require even more dropped points from those around us. So when the ball ended up in the net my celebration was loud and a little bit crazy. Luckily my youngest two are used to it now and don’t burst out into tears watching their father transform into a crazy person for about thirty seconds or so.

The final whistle was blown and a massive three points was gained for Arsenal. If we win the league title this year then I have no doubt that we will look back at this result and say that it was key.

It wasn’t a vintage performance by any stretch of the imagination, we cannot expect to play thrilling attacking football in every minute of every game, that would not be realistic but we have once again shown strength when the cause looked lost, or could have looked lost.

Nicklas Bendtner has now scored 7 goals in 6 games for club and country, very much a striker in form. Abou Diaby was fantastic in the midfield, winning countless balls and driving the team forward with his running. Gael Clichy is approaching his best if not already there. Emmanuel Eboue full of tricks and graft, a great combination. Almunia looks back to his best form.

We are peaking at the right time and the team will have to continue this until the end. I am keeping my fingers crossed but right now I am just enjoying six points out of six against Phil Brown and Brian Horton’s side.

Joint top of the league, bums are surely squeaking now.