Match Review: Arsenal 2 Hull 0 - Premier League 04.12.13
Apologies for the late article, it’s been a busy time and I’ve just been a bit swamped. Nevertheless, the game against Hull was as routine as it gets. A very simple 2-0 win. No dramas, no stress, all very easy and comfortable and that’s the best way for these types of games to go. A home game against a promoted team who many expect to become a relegated one, is one that the best teams win without breaking a sweat. If you did a sweat check on the Arsenal players after the game, you’d have found none present. Ahead of a tough game on Sunday, it’s important to snap up the low hanging fruit.
As expected, Arsène Wenger decided to rotate his team ahead of another tough run of fixtures, making five changes from the weekend. Sagna missed out through injury and Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere and Giroud were all rested as the schedule becomes more packed. In came Jenkinson, Monreal, Flamini, Rosicky and to the surprise/horror of the Emirates crowd Nicklas Bendtner.
The Danish striker came in for his first Premier league start for a couple of years, having had a decent loan spell at Sunderland and a pretty torrid one at Juventus. Much trepidation greeted the selection, but within two minutes Bendtner was wheeling away in celebration and we were 1-0 up. Aaron Ramsey played a brilliant ball through to Jenkinson down the right hand side and the Englishman crossed the ball first time for Bendtner to nod in from two yards out. Some of the passing in the build up to the goal was beautiful, but Ramsey’s pass and Jenkinson’s cross were absolutely magnificent and left Bendtner with a simple task to score.
From that moment on, it was Arsenal dominance. Hull barely touched the ball, let alone get out of their own half and the Arsenal attack and midfield ran rings round the beleaguered Hull team. Bendtner had another golden opportunity, but took a heavy touch after Özil's shot rebounded off the keeper. Some good work from Monreal then led to Bendtner passing back to Cazorla, but the Spaniard dragged his shot wide and then Aaron Ramsey tested out Hull's keeper from about 25 yards.
Despite being in complete command though, we just couldn't get the second goal. As often happens when we can't double our lead, the game became a bit slow and stale. The pace and intensity dropped and we instead favoured keeping possession and probing occasionally, whilst giving Hull no chance to cause a threat. Özil had a late chance to score, but it stayed 1-0 at half time. I feel like I've written that before...
The second half started in identical fashion to the first. Monreal managed to keep the ball in on the left hand side and gave the ball to Ramsey, who mugged off a couple of Hull defenders before playing a sensational reverse pass through the defence to Özil. The German had a simple task to roll the ball beyond the keeper and claim his 4th Arsenal goal and the his 3rd in the league. The goal effectively killed off Hull and from then on the game was played at an easy pace, with the away side having pretty much no possession and looking like they just wanted to prevent a rout.
You could probably make a strong case to say that the Gunners were told to conserve their energy ahead of the coming games. There was certainly no urgency or any sense conveyed by the players that we needed to score any more goals. We were always threatening and probing, but it felt like the team knew that Hull didn't pose a threat anymore and were content with an easy 2-0 win. The game meandered along at a gentle pace, Arsenal getting into a good position every now and then and holding the visitors at arms length. Jake Livermore had Hull's only half decent chance and smashed it straight at Szczesny and that was that really.
The three points mean we stay four points clear at the top from Chelsea in second. We now face another very testing period, in which we face Everton, City away, Napoli away and Chelsea. Games against Newcastle and West Ham after that will finish 2013 off and it's been a mostly excellent year. We've played better than anyone else this year and with six or so games to go, hopefully we can round it off in style and be top in January. If we can do that, we'll have proved we have what it takes to win it. By January, every team has played everyone else and the teams that will challenge will be evident. It's time for a big push, time to get big results.
Teams
Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey (Arteta 80'), Rosicky (Wilshere 73'), Özil, Cazorla, Bendtner (Walcott 73')
Subs
Vermaelen, Arteta, Wilshere, Giroud, Walcott, Fabianski, Gibbs
Hull (4-4-1-1)
McGregor, Elmohamady, Brady (Rosenior 58'), Figueroa, Bruce, Chester, Livermore, Huddlestone, Graham (Boyd 58'), Sagbo (Nagy 73'), Meyler
Subs
Rosenior, Koren, Fryatt, Boyd, Nagy, Harper, Faye
Player Ratings
Szczesny - 7/10 - Untroubled, but there when needed
Jenkinson - 7/10 - A very encouraging performance and a really lovely assist
Mertesacker - 8/10 - Wall
Koscielny - 8/10 - Wall
Monreal - 8/10 - Fantastic performane that'll give Gibbs food for thought
Flamini - 7/10 - Did what he always does and did it well
Ramsey - 8/10 - Stunning passing, he's out of this world at the moment
Rosicky - 7/10 - Doing his bit well, but not an outstanding performance
Özil - 8/10 - Poetry in motion. He was born to play for the Arsenal
Cazorla - 7/10 - Feels like he's just off what he's capable of at the moment
Bendtner - 7/10 - Fair play, probably should have had two, but did a good job
Subs
Wilshere - 6/10 - Didn't really need to get too heavily involved, so didn't
Walcott - 5/10 - Anonymous once he came on, needs a lot more game time
Arteta - N/A
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