ENGLISH FA CUP: Arsenal 2 Hull City 1: THIS FA Cup quarter-final stretched Arsenal to such an extent that they had to win it with a goal in the 84th minute that was both untypical of them and also invalid.
The substitute Samir Nasri struck a long straight free-kick and Johan Djourou glanced it on to the captain William Gallas, who was offside as he headed home.
The referee Mike Riley took no action since his assistant Andy Garratt had kept his flag down. In that regard at least, Arsenal can count themselves lucky to have dodged a replay with Hull.
Wenger insisted Gallas was not offside when he scored the winner. “The goalkeeper touches ball, so he’s not offside. For me, it is a goal because their goalkeeper deflected the ball,” he said.
However, Brown said: “We haven’t been beaten by Arsenal, who are fourth top in the Premier League; we’ve been beaten by a linesman’s decision and a referee’s decision. It’s as simple as that.”
Now Arsenal go straight on to a meeting with Chelsea at Wembley on April 18th.
The victors had ultimately mustered an onslaught at the Emirates Stadium that at least showed appetite.
Wenger may have “a burning desire” to bring Arsenal their first trophy since 2005 but he did not choose to turn up the heat with his team selection.
It was about half the strength of the line-up sent out in the Premier League that defeated Blackburn 4-0 on Saturday. There was the same degree of dilution in the make-up of Phil Brown’s side. Each club has the Premier League as an obsession, with Arsenal aiming to stay in the top four while Hull attempt to keep themselves out of the three relegation slots.
Judging by the empty seats, many regulars had got into the spirit of things by excusing themselves from this match. That did not necessarily help Hull much.
The trouble for the visitors, in theory, was that Wenger, now that the injury list is shortening, could bring in keen and gifted fringe players. With all due regard for Hull’s efforts in this campaign, they do not have such means.
Even so, they are at least accustomed to being at a disadvantage and competed with a vigour that seemed to surprise Arsenal.
Hull’s encouragement in the league had stemmed from the strong start to the campaign that even saw them winning 2-1 at this ground in September despite conceding the opener.
They improved on that, so far as the early part of this tie was concerned, by striking first.
If the tournament seems to lack romance these days, this was a goal to steep the FA Cup in sentiment. It came from a 35-year-old native of Hull, Nick Barmby, who is an irregular starter nowadays.
He had a little luck to assist him in the 13th minute. The full-back Andy Dawson lifted the ball in to him on the left of the area and Barmby’s effort from an angle deflected off Gallas to float over a helpless Lukasz Fabianski.
Arsenal reacted with the usual pattern and movement but still found it hard to get access to core of the visitors’ penalty area.
Hull were more dangerous then. After Gallas had brought down Peter Halmosi, for which he was cautioned, Geovanni’s free-kick, in the 23rd minute, demanded that Fabianski leap to his right to keep the ball out of the top corner of the net.
Moments later, Barmby was offside by a fraction when converting Andy Dawson’s mishit drive.
Arsenal were certainly not being dominated, but their use of possession was inconclusive before the interval.
Theo Walcott, continuing his recovery from a shoulder injury, slowly settled and, after 41 minutes, his low ball from the right reached Andrey Arshavin. The Russian’s attempt cannoned to safety off Sam Ricketts.
While Ashavin did came close with a volley soon after, the opening period had been a painful search by Wenger’s men for their true selves.
The situation could have been worse and Kamil Zayatte, for instance, might have notched a second goal for Hull instead of missing with a header at a set-piece which looped just over the bar. As it was, they had to prepare for an onslaught while holding a marginal advantage.
There was disruption to Brown’s schemes, too, when the captain Ian Ashbee had to be replaced by Bryan Hughes after picking up a hamstring injury.
There was a hint of nervousness in Halmosi’s refusal to retreat at a free-kick, for which he was booked in the 46th minute. Arsenal were already displaying a new drive. It was a lapse of their own, rather than a Hull intervention, that prevented a goal as Abou Diaby headed an Arshavin corner off-target.
Hull were surviving on Arsenal’s profligacy. There was a desire to interrupt the momentum of Wenger’s team and the goalkeeper Boaz Myhill would also be booked for time-wasting.
The domination for Arsenal continued to be territorial, although they might well have equalised earlier than they did.
Myhill, for instance, had made a good save in the 67th minute from a free-kick from Robin van Persie.
With 16 minutes left, the Dutchman made a breakthrough. Nicklas Bendtner, on for Alex Song, was persistent on the right and bundled the ball across the face of the goal. A collected Arshavin then laid it back for Van Persie to fire into the net from close range.
Hull’s resistance was still fierce, but it now bore a sense of desperation and in the end a highly controversial goal proved their downfall.
l Guardian Service
ARSENAL(4-2-3-1) Fabianski; Sagna, Gallas, Djourou, Gibbs; Diaby, Song (Bendtner, 64); Walcott (Eboue, 82), Vela (Nasri, 64), Arshavin; Van Persie. Subs not used:Mannone, Toure, Denilson, Silvestre.
HULL CITY(4-3-2-1) Myhill; Ricketts, Gardner, Zayatte, Dawson; Ashbee (Hughes, h-t), Barmby (France, 76), Geovanni; Fagan, Manucho; Halmosi (Mendy, 67). Subs not used : Duke, Garcia, Folan, Featherstone.
Referee: M Riley.
