block6gooner

Hey mr tangerine man, it’s pretty clear to me,

That Arsenal are far better than Hull Ci-ty.

Yesterday Phil Brown returned to the grove, the match opened with a handshake (which was I am sure for effect shown on the big screens) between the two managers. In what was probably the coldest weather I can recall watching football, I sat with my Dad in the upper tier above my usual seat in block 6. The game started reasonably well for Arsenal, but Hull were pretty resilient and after a few minutes you could see that two games close together giving an element of fatigue and the absence of Fabregas meant we looked short of ideas and impetus to break down Hull. The game started to have a tempestuous edge to it when Stephen Hunt (most famous for his “challenge” on Petr Cech) bundled into Almunia after play had stopped, the Spanish keeper ran over to remonstrate with Hunt, the referee also spoke to the player. But it had little effect as he made two or three further challenges that warranted bookings.

Just before half time things did turn ugly, from our seats we saw a Hull player fall to the ground and then the rest of the players on the pitch bundled around Nasri, I thought I saw arms flailing as if it were a punch. Again Hunt was the main Hull agitator. Sylvestre was the boxing buddy, and carried the part off pretty well shielding Nasri. The replay on MOTD shows that Nasri stood on the Hull player’s (Garcia I think) foot, it was not a stamp. He might have meant it but we don’t know. Both Nasri and Hunt were booked after the melee.

Following on from this some rash challenges started to fly in and the ref had his whistle in his mouth almost permanently. He gave us a perhaps generous free kick after Diaby was felled. Nasri and Denilson stood over the ball, then Nasri joined the wall. In time honoured tradition of current Arsenal free kicks I expected this to go straight into the wall, but then, something magical happened.

Denilson hit a perfectly placed free kick into the net. It was fantastic. We were 1-0 up just before half time. After the game Arsène said “Denilson was not going to take the free kick”. Well I am glad he did!

As the players left the pitch there was some afters as they entered the tunnel, but no further bookings came of this. However I am not sure if Cesc’s clothing antagonised any of the Hull staff so we will have to wait for the report from their lawyers on that one.

The second half started with us on the front foot, Hull now needed to attack us and we had the chance for an early goal when Arshavin fed Eduardo, he really should have put it away but his current lack of match practice and form conspired against him sadly. Not long after this Hull were awarded possibly the softest penalty in football history (even Brown admitted it was soft after the game) when Fagan went down in our area. I was not confident at this point, Almunia has not played well of late and his ball distribution in the game was again poor. However he made a great save from the penalty and Hunt missed the follow up. I laughed at him.

Almost immediately after the penalty miss we were up at the other end, Diaby made a play in the left of their area and sent the ball across the Hull goal for Eduardo to tap in, he didn’t look that happy when he scored but perhaps his form is playing on his mind. The game was pretty much ours now with half an hour remaining. Hull provided little resistance beyond that point and we took full control of the game, some press reports say we struggled but I certainly disagree as did my non-Gooner father who I feel gave a balance view on the game.

But another goal was to come, Diaby danced through the Hull defence and scored a great goal. 3-0 to the Arsenal. “Stand up if you hate Phil Brown” and “Tango whats the score” reverberated around the stadium, much to our, and I suspect Arsène’s, amusement. Theo and Aaron Ramsey were introduced as subs which I think meant our front 6 players were under 23, a great thing for the future of the club. Theo had a chance late on when he chipped the advancing keeper only to see it go agonisingly just past the post, thankfully this was met with chants of his name from the crowd rather than something else.

So it was 3 points, which was great given Utd losing earlier in the day. We are now 2 behind them with a game in hand (at home to Bolton on the 6th Jan) but Villa are pretty close behind and I suspect our next game at home against them will be a very tough test. A few players did well today, the midfield trio of Song, impressive as ever, Denilson, a great goal and some good tackles, and Diaby, one of his better games, were the key today. Yes they didn’t have the creativity that Cesc has but they all put in solid performances, Diaby needs to work on his first touch still but he continues to develop. If he can erase the poorer moments of his game and be more energetic like he was in spells today then he can be a mainstay in this team. Almunia also did well; he has been criticised, and rightly so, of late. His ball distribution was poor for the first hour today, but the penalty save gave him a much needed confidence boost and after that he looked more settled, he made a good save late on as well. He might not be a top top keeper but he is what we have at the moment and he needs our backing all the way. Eboue again impressed at right back, I think that should be where he plays from now on. Rotate him and Sagna so we don’t have a right back injury crisis like that on our left.

So we are still in the hunt at Christmas, this season is far from over and I can see Chelsea, Utd and sadly us lose at least 2 or 3 games more before the season end. But we can revel in our third place in the table and be glad our board have the confidence in what our manager is doing and don’t make any rash mid-season sackings like two other money laden clubs seem to have as their model of how they think football should be run.

Come on The Arsenal