Arsenal 1 - 2 Hull
What a shocker! Or is it? Hull are showing themselves to be a surprise package so far this season - they already feature in the top half of the table and so far look to have everything they will need to stay up. Ok, so they took a little luck out of Saturday, and they caught Arsenal off the boil, but they played well and made the most of their chances. The same cannot be said of Arsenal.
Positivies to take from the game include our domination, and, er…. Walcotts speed. However, Walcott was a little redundent in the final 5th of the pitch, nearly everything he started petered out too soon. RVP and Ade were off colour, and as I’ve said a hundred times - that hat-trick against Blackburn suddenly looks a bit useless - if he’d have kept two of them back for Saturday things would have been different.
Another positive was Cesc’s performance - it wasn’t vintage but at least he showed himself a couple of times and helped fashion the goal.
But - Arsenal need to sort out the striker thing really. RVP spent most of his time in or around the center circle. I’m not the only one who thought he was playing too deep - we need someone like Vela up front so Walcotts runs can actually lead to a cross - too often he has to hold up and wait for support. At times I thought we had a 6 man midfield with Ade and RVP playing so deep. Adebayor looked summararily unimpressed all day and didn’t even have a shot on goal (unless I missed it). RVP looked far more hungry but ended up too deep in an attempt to just get the ball. With Vela and Bendtner on the bench (having scored 5 between them midweek) you’d think no front player would be safe from the drop. Adebayor is a waste of space at times and would do him good to be substitued for Bendtner or Vela. Edaurdo is still making his comeback to training and hopefully will return soon to.
However, Hull were lucky. They had two real chances and took them both. An excellent shot and an excellent corner lead to a lead that really neither team deserved. Gallas again was done from a set piece, just like Fulham - there is simply no excuse for our captain and central defender to get done like that at the near post… and just look at Adeybayor below. Bothered much?
If Arsenal had played a striker up front to capitalise on some of the work done by Walcott (and yes, even Eboue) rather than two sulky playmaker types and if they practiced set pieces more often I think this would be our year.
It still might be.
At least Sp*rz lost 
Filed by Kieran at September 29th, 2008 under Football