Arsenal squeaked past Hull City this evening with a 2-1 victory over the Tigers at the Emirates. The match began on a nervy note with a 13th minute deflected goal from Nick Barmby, Hull's veteran midfielder.
The Gunners lacked urgency of any kind during the greater parts of the first half. Arsene Wenger could have taken a bit of stick for leaving Toure, Denilson, Nasri, Clichy, or Bendtner out of the starting eleven. English punditry continues to dub every Arsenal FA cup tie as the "most important match of Arsenal's season". So Wenger's first choice men raised a few eyebrows.
Arsenal's best chances of the first half came solely from Andrei Arshavin - one being a hard-hit volley one yard shy of the right upright.
Mike Reilly, the referee of the match, did everything but keep the match under control. Hull City's goalkeeper, Boaz Myhill, was the center of the restless Emirates supporter's disgust with his time-wasting antics. Usually, time-wasting happens in the dying minutes of the match. However, Hull City appeared to be doing it immediately following their goal, mind you, in the first half.
Arsene fooled me by not making any changes in the side at the start of the second half. Hull's 4-5-1 formation seemed to congest the center of the park where Diaby and Song spent most of their time. Arshavin and Walcott saw more of the ball in the second half, hence leading to the goal. Nicklas Bendtner's work in the box set up Arshavin who then put the ball on a silver platter for Van Persie to send to the back of the net. After the 74th minute strike, the second seemed inevitable.
Mike Reilly's linesmen seemed to be up for the job on the evening until the 84th minute. Gallas blatantly came from an offsides position to score the second. Where is Avram Grant when we need him to satisfy our football cliches? Avram would say in his thick Egyptian accent, "This is football." Hull were denied a goal in the first half after Andy Dawson's shot was tapped in by Nick Barmby who was clearly offsides. However it is arguable that he was less offsides than Gallas was and Gallas was awarded the goal.
In his post-match interview Wenger denied that the goal was offsides because after Djourou got his head to the ball, Myhill got a hand to it. I will have to go back and watch the replay to decide for myself but if I'm a betting man, Wenger's right.
All of this to say, Arsenal are in to the semi-finals of the FA cup and an all-London clash at Wembley is in place. Mr.Hiddink was present at the Emirates for the match and as much inside knowledge that he will be able to provide Chelsea with about Arshavin, it really will not matter.
Arshavin was impressive all match but one moment stood above the rest. On one of his left wing sprints, Arshavin danced and dazzled with the ball making Hull City defender Sam Ricketts ankles disagree with each other. Ricketts went tumbling to the ground and for some reason all I could imagine were a bunch of spectators at an And One showcase yelling "Oh!" and "damn!" It was made for the mixtapes.
As much as I respect Phil Brown and all the work he has done at Hull this season, I am going to sit and laugh at him as he is sure to have plenty of complaints about the way things went for his side. I don't love the fact that Arsene declined the perennial post-match handshake with Brown and his staff. I reckon he was simply fed up with the Tigers' time-wasting. Fabregas was also claimed to have spat on Hull City's assistant manager Brian Horton. More on this later.
Next:
The Gunners will try to maintain 4th spot in the Premier League with a trip to St. James'. Just in case you were wondering, Aston Villa go to Anfield on Sunday playing a side that beat Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate and defeated Manchester United 4-1 at Old Trafford. My point, Arsenal should be three points ahead of the Villains come Sunday evening.
One more note...
The FA Cup semi-final will be on April 18.
Hayes,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I wish that I could have watched the whole game. Unfortunately, I was only able to see the 3 minute youtube video. I read about the claims that Cesc spat and I have to say my first reaction was that it would be out of character for him to do that. Gallas? Bendtner? I probably wouldn't be too shocked if it were one of those names.
Ok another topic. 1. Arshavin is short. 2. Arshavin is good. 3. I will eat my foot on my prediction of him being a bad pickup for Arsenal. He is playing, from all I can see, fabulously well.
Great post Hayes. Keep them up. I support you.
Paul