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Would You Believe This?
By Toyin | September 27, 2008
Arsenal 1-Hull City 2! This fully explains the title of this piece. Since April 2007, when West Ham defeated them by a lone Bobby Samora goal, the Emirates stadium has become the fortress that Highbury used to be.
Almost a century of games have been played since and this was supposed to be a walk in the park for the Gunners! Right from the blast of the whistle, it was clear that the visiting team has not come for a tea party; they were right up for it from the onset.
While Arsenal was busy playing their usual passing game, Hull went about the business of defending and counter-attacking at every opportunity. Hull defended with ease and even passed themselves out of trouble when Arsenal attacked deep. They didn’t show any nerves that they are in the stadium of one of the big guns of the English Premiership.
This should have sent the alarm bells ringing for Arsene Wenger who is celebrating his twelfth year with the club. He showed his usual calmness while mouthing some instructions to his assistant, Pat Rice. The first half was drawing to a close, yet his team was finding it very difficult to breakdown the disciplined Hull City defense.
Hull City kept their nerves and went into the break level with their more illustrious host. While it took Arsenal longer time to appear for the pre-match lineup in the tunnel, they were the first to show up for the start of the second half. A sign of urgency or perhaps desperation?
Not long after the restart, the searing pace of Theo Walcott caused all kinds of trouble for the Tigers defense and they conceded an own goal under pressure. If the fans at the Emirates expected them to capitulate after that, they were dead wrong!
They hauled themselves back into the game and got a fabulous equalizer from a thunder of a strike from Giovanni. Five minutes before this, it was very obvious that Emmanuel Eboue had tired out but ‘Arsene knows best’, the favourite remark around Highbury and now Emirates.
Van Pierse, Adebayo and Walcott were finding it very difficult to get anything from the no nonsense defenders attached to them. By the time Wenger got ready to make his changes, it was too late as a header from Cousin gave Hull City the lead; a most unlikely scenario! Emirates partially fell into silence as both set of fans are shell shocked. Obviously, Hull was not supposed to be leading Arsenal! But this is the reality and it is football, the most unpredictable sport in the world.
When Gallas hit the post eleven minutes from time, I knew it was game over and that is exactly what happened as Hull City claimed a famous victory against the Gunners. Phil Brown, Hull’s coach punched the air in victory and walked over to Wenger who was too shocked to mouth the normal congratulations. Could this be a result of too much expectation from an average team?
What however got me typing immediately after the match was Arsene’s body language while his team was still in the lead. Robin Van Pierse just wasted a gilt edged opportunity; instead of the ‘prof’ to stand up and shout instructions and encouragement to his wards, he bowed his head and covered his head in both hands.
Has he lost the plot? Last season, they lost only three matches. They are already two third of the way gone for this out of the few games played so far. If Arsenal cannot comprehensively beat a team like Hull City, what does the Premiership hold in stock for them this season? They concede soft goals from set pieces and their manager praises them for that claiming that they have not let in any goal from ‘open play’. Whatever that means!
They lost against Chelsea and Manchester United last term in games they led by a goal each. The third match they lost was their first loss of the season against Middlesborough. They have dropped points against ‘weak’ teams in the past but losing against Fulham and Hull City in a league where just over a fifth of the games have been played calls for serious concern.
Wenger should know that in the world of the Premiership (having been a winner three times in the past), teams that had won the league takes maximum points against ‘minnows’ even when they did not play well. Does this loss signal grave danger for Arsenal? Only time will tell. If history is to be followed at all, then Wenger should be getting very worried.
Why? Wenger’s teams over the past finds it very hard to haul themselves back into winning mode after such an upset as this. There is also the small matter of the Champions League on Tuesday. FC Porto is visiting and you can bet that they will be coming with determination to win having cancelled out Arsenal in the past.
If they continue to be so wasteful in front of goal (their lot for the past four seasons) and let in goal like the types they have conceded so far; it might just be a long season for them-a very long one!
Topics: Who Will Win |
September 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
This is FAIRanalysis. But I believe that this goes to show the strong competitive nature of the Premier League this season. Newly promoted sides like Hull, Stoke and West Brom are winning matches while Totenham Hotspurs seems to be taking an holiday. Clearly there is a lot to look for. No longer can anyside be regarded as minnows, On the day Hull played good footbal and carried the day. Simple.