Arsenal certainly took into consideration the feelings of the fans in the early kick-off against Hull City yesterday and the performance was very obviously spirited.
With a lineup quite different from what was expected, but the outcome was definitely aligned with my expectation.
The game was very lively as Hull City shockingly had more possession than the North London club at the end of the first half with a 49%-51% in favor of the visitors.
To say The Tigers were fearless would be an understatement. Niasse, Grosicki, and N’Daiye were all tuned in from the start of the game.
The Gunners were quite wasteful, to be honest in the first half with Alexis, Özil and Walcott all being culpable.
Oxlade-Chamberlain continued his fine form in the central midfield. Francis Coquelin gave everyone a scare when he stayed down after a challenge, clutching his hamstring.
Cech may have been abysmal against his former club but that save from Niasse at the beginning of the second half was sublime after Markovic gave Koscienly the slip.
There were moments of madness though as Walcott lost his head tossing the ball towards the linesman after being roughed up by Maguire and Kieran Gibbs getting lucky not getting sent off after his last man’s challenge on Markovic. He was truly lucky to walk away with just a yellow card.
The game seemed to die down a bit in the second half as the visitors started to depend more on crosses rather than the robust buildups and counter-attacking football we saw in the first half.
The game was truly over for me when Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck were introduced in place of Iwobi and Oxlade despite only being a goal to the good.
Alexis Sanchez was the man on hand again to officially wrap up proceedings in the game when he dispatched convincingly his penalty after Clucas handled the ball in the area from Lucas Perez’s header which was goal-bound.
The move that led to that header is definitely one for our screensavers. Anyway, let’s tune our attention to watching our rivals falter today.
Arsene Wenger and Arsenal seat 3rd pending the outcome of Manchester City’s game on Monday at Bournemouth.
You can catch up on the summary of the game here.
COYG!
