Arsenal 2-0 Hull City: Arsenal put game in safe hands

It’s one of those matches where the scoreline feels a bit too generous to Arsenal, but the Gunners picked up all three points today and moved into third place in the Premier League ahead of Manchester City, at least for a couple of days.

The match itself was fairly blegh. Playing at home against a team in the relegation zone, our boys often looked tactically disorganized and never really seemed to impose their will against Hull City or string together anything impressive from open play. In fairness, however, injury woes had forced us to start a midfield duo of Coquelin, who is not good, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is not accustomed to playing in a deeper central midfield role.

Nonetheless, in the 34th minute Alexis Sánchez finally got a goal for Arsenal with what might have been a handball. Who knows! Anyway, prepare for plenty of banter and #takes about the Premier League handball rules.

Further “highlights” include Theo getting a yellow card after getting chippy with a Hull City player who shoved him out of bounds. Arsenal mostly continued to underwhelm in the second half, but Hull was unable to capitalize. Looking back, I only recall one really dangerous chance from them which was saved by Cech, so thanks Petr.

Then, in stoppage time, more banter! Samuel Clucas of Hull was booked for a handball in the box, and Alexis was able to convert the penalty. So prepare for even more #takes about the Premier League handball rules. Alexis, by the way, became the sole leading-scorer in the league after that second goal.

All told, it was hardly inspiring but hey, three points are three points and we needed them. Looking ahead in the league, Xhaka’s ban should be ending soon and Elneny is back in the squad from AFCON duty so there is some relief in central midfield coming. In the immediate future, however, the Gunners head away this week for a Champions League match against Bayern Munich. Crap.