Hull 1 (Quinn 57′) – Arsenal 3 (Alexis 28′, 45′, Ramsey 33′)
Match Report – Match Highlights – Post-Match Press Conference
In all honesty, I’m not a really a fan of Monday night football, especially on a weekend where some B*stard F*cking Rent Boys won the Premier League title. However, I had a lot of fun trolling Manchester United when they lost and failed to score yet again for three Premier League games on the bounce. On Sunday, I’d hoped for those chickens from White Hart Lane to at least get some points off Manchester City but as expected, you can’t trust that lot.
Manchester City’s win sent them to second place and with the Citizens having a superior goal difference than the Gunners, it was simply a case of getting three points against Hull to level them on points. Using the classic case of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’, Arsene Wenger opted for the same squad that has been very efficient with Santi Cazorla playing deep and Aaron Ramsey on the right with the usual suspects in their respective positions.
Hull were buzzing from winning two games on the spin but they had to be realistic enough to know that Arsenal’s record against teams in the bottom half of the table has been exemplary and they were going to bring their A-game if they wanted to get something out of the match. The Gunners received a big scare when Aaron Ramsey was on the end of a rash challenge from Jake Livermore but the Welsh Jesus received some treatment and got back on his feet.
The Gunners finally broke the deadlock when Alexis Sanchez fired a free kick that deflected into the net. You’d have expected Steve Harper to make a save as the ball wasn’t too far from where he stood but Arsenal fans didn’t care as the ball crept into the net to make it one nil. The away side doubled their money when Santi Cazorla found Ramsey with a peach of a pass and the Welsh maestro still needed to do some work but as you’d expect from Ramsey, his determination was enough to get past his marker before blasting a deflected effort that left Harper rooted to the spot.
Arsenal made it three when Ramsey threaded a neat ball to Alexis that skipped past the goalie before placing the ball to an unguarded net. That was his 24th goal for the Gunners in his maiden season, and if you add his 11 assists, it’s a no-brainer on the player that would win the MVP award for the club come end of May.
With the Gunners failing to concede a goal in the first half, that was the 14th game this season where the opposition failed to found the Gunners net in the first 45 minutes. Leading 3-0 at halftime was bound to bring in an air of complacency and the Gunners were duly punished courtesy of a brilliant header from a ginger bloke called Quinn. Laurent Koscielny took a whacking in the buildup to the goal but Lee Mason turned a blind eye to it and let play go on. From an attacking perspective, that was all Hull could muster and it was another valuable three points for the Gunners.
The team played superbly and in my opinion, it was only Olivier Giroud that somewhat struggled in the course of the game before he was replaced by Theo Walcott late on. Whether those quotes by Thierry Henry has gotten to him I don’t know but the goals have kinda dried up and he’d want to get back in on the scoring act. However, on a night where Giroud struggled, Alexis shone like a bright star. The Chilean took his goals well and he should be proud of his exploits for the team this season. He was a bit selfish late on when he could have squared the ball for Walcott but he wanted to get his first Arsenal hat-trick.
Lest I forget, did anybody see this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYWPhrxu-sU
Mesut Ozil, you technical beast.
There was also a cameo appearance for Jack Wilshere, that made his first appearance for the club since November. It didn’t even take the Englishman long to make those his trademark lung-bursting runs and he was hacked down by Meyler. Thankfully, he got up and continued with the game but Meyler suffered a nasty gash to his face.
The good form continues and we have Swansea next.
Happy St. Tottenringham’s Day everyone.
Sayonara.
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