The thing that makes football grab you, and not let you go, is the fact that that you can experience the full range of emotions. Not just over the course of the season, and not just over a given month or series of games. As today has shown you can experience everything from complete rage to unbridled ecstasy in just ninety-six minutes.

If the mark of a championship winning side is one that can dig out a result when not playing well then it is perhaps a good time to send Vic Akers down to Waitrose for some more silver polish.

For a variety of reasons this was the much-heralded ‘game of two halves’. From the kick-off there were few surprises. Arsenal quickly settled into a swift passing, attacking mode, and Hull, desperate for Premiership survival, provided the entirely expected battling response. Their fans would have been bitterly disappointed if they hadn’t, and we would have been astonished as well.

That meant constant whistling from Andre Marriner. His early failure to take action against serial offenders Fagan and Marney meant that there was no curbing of the rising tension that was creeping in. The hosts mood was not helped by conceding the opener to the impish Andrey Arshavin before a quarter of an hour had passed. The travelling Gooners roared their approval of ‘he’s five foot four‘.

Against the run of play Hull got on terms when Venegoor not Hasselbaink activated a cloaking device which prevented the myopic lino from seeing him a yard offside. The difficult-to-spot six feet three inch striker in the XXXL bright amber shirt was brought down by Sol Campbell, and the penalty award was inevitable. Bullard imagined the face of Barmby on the ball and put his foot right through it to give Manuel Almunia no chance.

Fired up by the equaliser, and the lack of action from Mr Marriner, the ‘tackles’ became more robust. Dawson must have breathed a sigh of relief that only a yellow card was shown for his agricultural challenge on Denilson, and at the same time Boateng decided Nicklas Bendtner could do without the use of his right eye and was also extremely fortunate to only see yellow.

If the overdue issue of cards was intended to act as a warning to the home side it was not entirely a success. Boateng launched an absurd assault on Bacary Sagna’s right knee, and the only injustice was the second yellow that was shown prior to the red which will reduce the punishment from a three game ban to just one. The challenge stirred unwanted memories of the Gunners last away game.

Half-time was spent seething, just as much at the hapless official as Hull, in all honesty. If he had taken action earlier then the unsavoury nature of the final fifteen minutes of the half could have been avoided. Nobody wants to see all physicality taken out of the game, but the officials do have a responsibility to take action against persistent foul play before it gets out of hand.

If the end of the first half left a sour taste then one has to give credit to the spirited and determined performance put up by the ten men after the break. Stripped of the brainless Boateng, his team mates worked overtime to make up for his absence.

That Arsenal could not break them down owed something to the fact that only Abou Diaby appeared to be on top of his game in the midfield, and even more to some wasteful finishing, particularly by the scorer of the first goal. Anger gave way to frustration as chances were intermittently created, then went begging.

There was a contentious moment when Sol Campbell, already booked, challenged Zayatte. Replays showed not only had Campbell taken the ball, but in fact Zayatte had gone over the top of the ball, yet the Hull man came off second best and was eventually substituted. The incident would provide a talking point for the beaten manager at the end of the game.

As the ninety minutes reached their conclusion, and Hull prepared to celebrate a hard-earned and battling point, we got the first hint that this might yet be our day. The fourth official raised the board to indicate six minutes of ‘Fergie’ time. Although it was correct, I’ll agree that was a little unexpected.

In the third of those minutes came the moment, the importance of which will become clearer in a couple of months. Denilson let fly from thirty yards out, Myhill could only parry the ball to the feet of Bendtner, and the big Dane found the finish to secure three precious points.



In September Phil Brown claimed to have prevented a woman from jumping off the Humber Bridge. The Hull Womens Institute have set up a rota over the weekend to return the compliment, if required, safe in the knowledge that the bridge has been pivotal in Hull’s season.

Arsenal meanwhile will be left to contemplate the possibility that fate has better things in store for them. Thirteen wins required from the last thirteen games has now become eight wins required from the last eight. As a top Arsenal podcast might say, ‘it’s up for grabs now’.

The Game

These are the sort of games which win you titles.

On a day which saw many Arsenal players failing to deliver and some shocking referee decisions, we get three very important points which keep our title hopes alive. I don’t know if Hull would have still managed to equalise but I firmly believe that had the linesman not helped them back into the game, we would have won it more comfortably. Someone once said that referees should be substituted just like players and today’s game shows why.

The game was not nice to see, we were struggling in the final part to create chances and when we did we blew them. What in my opinion changed the game was Theo’s introduction, which is funny, considering I was so disappointed to see Emmanuel being replaced, but Theo attacked the space and delivered some nice balls which a striker with different characteristics than Nick’s would have surely buried.

Anyway, a big sigh of relief as we can keep on dreaming, keep on hoping, or better, keep on believing. West Ham are next, at home, game in which Alex Song and hopefully Cesc Fabregas will make their comeback.

Player Ratings

Almunia: 6 – A virtual spectator Manuel, didn’t have much to do, I believe the penalty was the only time he was called in action.

Vermaelen: 7 – You can’t really blame him for linesmen mistakes. He made sure Hull City strikers were kept at bay.

Campbell: 6 – Like Thomas, can’t really blame him for poor refereeing although he was a little shaky in certain moments.

Clichy: 7,5 – I was very, very impressed with Gael’s performance today. Both defensively and offensively, he was a big asset for the side. You can easily say that slowly, the Frenchman is rediscovering his form, which is terrific to see.

Sagna: 7 – Very solid game for Bacary who also delivered some nice crosses.

Eboue: 7 – Brilliant first touch, nice tricks with the ball and an excellent overall performance. He was disappointed when substituted but it seems Arsene was spot on.

Denilson: 7 – You cannot deny the fact that his shot gave us the win. He had a very good game, promised it, and delivered it but he will never win me over if he keeps on jogging back when dispossessed. This, seriously, has to stop as he gets away with it sometimes – like today – but not in other occasions.

Diaby: 5 – A very, very poor game from Abou. I’m not sure what was wrong with him but whenever he got the ball, he just … stopped. He seemed out of ideas, rarely attacked the space and was guilty of going for goal from distance instead of passing it to a close team mate.

Nasri: 4,5 – Like Abou, Samir had a disappointing game. He also was slow on the ball and rarely managed to dribble his way past the Hull defenders. Let’s hope it’s just a one off.

Arshavin: 6,5 – Started brightly, scored and then … vanished. I said Andrey was going to be one of the keys for us today and in a way he was but he was shocking after the goal, especially in the second half in which he missed glorious chances. I’m not saying he did nothing worth mentioning in the second 45 minutes but by his standards, it was very little.

Bendtner: 6,5 – A mix of feelings today on his performance. He’s way too slow to be considered an Eduardo-like striker but as he’s been doing since his comeback from injury, used his body to perfection to help the midfielders getting up. And was also on target even if he didn’t hit it cleanly, scoring one of the season’s most important goals.

(Subs)
Walcott: 7,5 – Is it too high? I don’t think so. I kept a close eye on Theo and you could see the Hull left wingers going crazy when he came on, not only when he was on the ball, but also with his runs, which made sure Bacary was left unmarked when on the ball.

Eduardo: 6 – I loved his contribution. It wasn’t a usual inside-the-box cameo appearance by Dudu as he dropped very deep to help in midfield but still did pretty well.

ARSENE WENGER reckons Arsenal's last-gasp 2-1 victory at 10-man Hull could go a long way to delivering their first Premier League title in six years.

Nicklas Bendtner struck in stoppage time as the Gunners kept pace with Chelsea at the top of the table, although they have played a game more than their rivals.

The Gunners went in front thanks to Andrey Arshavin's early goal but Jimmy Bullard levelled with a penalty after 28 minutes following a clumsy Sol Campbell challenge on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.


The visitors struggled to break down Hull following the 45th-minute dismissal of George Boateng but their persistence paid off when Bendtner netted the rebound after Boaz Myhill only palmed out Denilson's shot.

After watching his side record their fifth straight win, Wenger said: "It's maybe not good for my heart, but for the championship it's not bad.

"We have eight games to go, we are in there, why should we not believe?

"What I believe especially is that we will give absolutely everything to do it. You saw that in the game today. We were a bit jaded but we kept going.

"We needed the three points and we got it after the 90 minutes."

Wenger had no complaints about the penalty, but did not feel Campbell's challenge was worthy of a red card as the last defender.

The Frenchman added: "Vennegoor of Hesselink played him in an intelligent way.

"Sol had no other option than to touch him but there was no intention, it was accidental.

"And he (Vennegoor of Hesselink) was offside at the start."

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Sol Campbell believed Arsenal's hard-fought win over Hull was deserved as they boosted their Premier League title credentials.




Arsene Wenger: 'The players are jaded'


Nicklas Bendtner struck in the third minute of added time to finally see off the 10-man Tigers at the KC Stadium.

And Campbell told ESPN: "I think we deserved it, we kept on probing, played some great football and created some great chances and it was all down to Nicklas knocking one in at the end. It was a tight game, but the main thing is we got the win.''

Hull's goal came from a disputed Jimmy Bullard penalty after Campbell bundled over Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who appeared to be offside at the time. Campbell argued: "I think he came from an offside position and the ball was behind his head so technically it was a coming together.''

Bendtner missed a string of chances against Burnley last week but bounced back with a Champions League hat-trick against Porto and added the crucial strike at the KC. He told ESPN: "It felt really good, so long in coming and at 1-1 it was really tense and we were trying to push on.

"All goals you score are important, especially today and I'm pleased for the team that we won the game.''

Manager Arsene Wenger added: "We started well, when we were 1-0 up we lost our focus and took it a bit too easy. When it was 1-1 I knew we had to battle because suddenly Hull's belief raised. We needed to fight until the last second and fortunately we got the late goal.''

The Tigers played much of the game with 10 men after George Boateng received a second booking for a crude challenge on Bacary Sagna. Wenger said: "Unfortunately he deserved it but you can understand these challenges. If teams are fighting not to go out of the Premier League you understand that commitment.''

Hull boss Phil Brown was reflective after seeing his side finish empty-handed. "It's not consolations you're after it's positives,'' he said. "There have been question marks about our fight, commitment and spirit at this football club but it was there for everybody to see.

"We were down to 10 men, we had lost our most experienced player which was disappointing, but the players showed spirit today. We've asked for it for nine more games and if we get it we'll be fine. Today was an outstanding performance from more or less every individual in the team.''

Asked if Boateng had let the team down with his dismissal, Brown added: "George didn't let us down. George has never let me down since he came to the club.''