Well, not exactly a fun match to watch. It had the feeling all match long that we were about to score, but it never did happen. The adrenaline from that alone will probably keep me up past 3am.

The upside was that Andrey Arshavin made his Arsenal debut and my wishes were heard that he would start. Unfortunately, the football faeries ignored my wishes that Eboue remain on the bench forever… or in another town entirely. But, Andrey acquitted himself admirably. He was the maker of several plays and the taker of several shots that could have easily put us ahead. If that’s his idea of easing into the squad, then I can’t imagine other than a bright future for him at the club.

The whole team played well (although Song & Denilson were as dismal as ever) but we just couldn’t find the opening we needed with all but Jones crowding the box. We were playing a line so high that Almunia was nearly in the center circle, but we couldn’t find nylon. I have to say though, the passing game seemed to be much more crisp than it’s been in quite some time.

With an Aston Villa loss this morning, that puts us 6 points out of the top four and 17 points behind the lead. I’d say that’s pretty much insurmountable, wouldn’t you? 2nd place isn’t entirely out of reach at just 9 points ahead, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll be fighting quite hard just to get into the top four for the remainder of the season. No matter, I’ll still love watching my Arsenal football, and there’s still plenty to play for this season.

Adebayor 30, Nasri 83, Bendtner 86 – Divers: none

The ten man Arsenal prevail over Hull City away at KC Stadium. Arsenal were forced to play with only ten men (and Eboue) for the full 90 minutes. But they didn’t let that deter them. They even had the sheer audacity to allow Eboue to actually possess the ball several times. Each time, of course, the ball was  immediately handed off to the opposition or shot wildly out of bounds.

Hull came on strong for the match. They were definitely up for it and looking for the double over us. We held tough through their spurts of creativity and kept possession. At the half, we were up 0-1 from an RvP corner placed on the right temple of one Emmanuel Adebayor. The ball then caromed off his empty bonce into the Hull net, luckily for us. Also, there was a Robin van Persie free kick that rattled the crossbar after the Hull keeper got some fingertips on the ball.

At the restart, the match pretty much picked up where it left off. It wasn’t until 83′ that RvP picked out the advancing Samir Nasri who easily netted around the Hull keeper. Three minutes later, Niklas Bendtner swept in to score our third and put the match out of reach. Another Bendtner attempt a few moments later could have made it 1-4. At times it felt like it could be history repeating itself, but for the most part it felt like a comfortable win.

Bonus: Johan Drourou gave Manucho a Liverpool kiss which should keep his eye shut for the better part of the weekend. Phil Brown was running his trap after the match saying that the lack of a call on Djourou was why his team didn’t go up. Piss off, Phil. If it weren’t for the posts, we would have won 1-5 or 2-5 with your supposed penalty. You don’t hear us bitching about the thickness of the posts, do you?

Unfortunately, all the other top teams, apart from Liverpool who play tomorrow,  also took maximum points. So, we remain in 5th, but continue our good form. Next up we head to Cardiff for next round of the FA Cup, which Clichy will sit for with his 5th yellow. Then it’s Everton when we get back to the League. Until then. Well done you GUNNERS!

Update: I thought this weekend couldn’t get better, but the Pond Life are now embroiled in five way tie for last place. Where, they’re too good to go down… or so I’m told. It’ll be fun to watch them struggle in & out of the drop zone for the rest of the season. Sorry the table to the right hasn’t been getting updated regularly. I’ll have to see about that.

The hated Tigers. The loathsome Tigers. They started so impressively and were the darlings of the Premier League for the first half of the season. Now, they’ve faltered. And there’s just so much not to like about them: That pipe coming out of the right side of Phil Brown’s head that he uses to utter cabalistic and arcane chants to some unknown deity during the match;  And… Orange? That just  speaks for itself. And then there’s the… well, that’s it really. I suppose they’re not so bad after all. Honestly, they played a great match the last time we saw them, we didn’t, and we paid dearly for it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stick it to them this time around, does it? Of course not. But, I have to admit, it’s nice to see a newly promoted team shake things up a bit. Arsenal hasn’t played in the same league with Hull since World War I.

It looks like we’ve got no new injury news to report other than Alex Song having to face a fitness test prior to kickoff. Should he pass, it will feel like new signing. Feel it.  Hull are without George Boateng as far as I know. But, they’ve added Kevin Kilbane and now it appears the singularly named Manucho will be leaving Manchester United to join the Tigers. whether he’ll put boots on tomorrow is another matter. So, without further procrastination, the Scurvy Prognostication of The Match is:

Hull City 1-2 Arsenal

Yes, I’m hoping we come away with the same scoreline they did at The Grove. A clean sheet is nice, but defeat at home by one goal (preferably in injury time) is the knife we must twist in their stripey orange guts. Of course, a 0-5 drubbing would be swell too. A win for us will see them down to 9th place, even if West Ham & Fulham draw – Hull’s GD is pretty abysmal. As for us, we’ll probably remain in 5th. Everton can only come level of us with a win, but we’ve got the GD advantage unless they beat Livuhpyool 0-8. I can’t imagine Aston villa won’t take maximum points off Sunderland, but you never know. If they don’t and we win by 2, we’re back in the top four… albeit by the curliest of hairs.

Transfer Bits: I’ve heard that Arsène mentioned Bullard & Hangeland in a bit on ArsenalTV yesterday. Not sure what he said since I didn’t see it, but I assume it wasn’t that he’s signing either of them. I think it was probably more of the “I know zumthing you don’t know!” we’ve been getting from him since, well… forever.

In other news…  Kaka belongs to Jesus. His undergarments confirm this. Manchester City, on the other hand, belong to Satan. AC Milan are currently considering an offer of over 100 million pounds from Citeh to release the Holy One into their charge. Kaka said something like “I am bery bery happy at AC Milan and will not move.” To which his agent said “Hold on there, I say, Hold on there a second son…” And then I think there was some slapping. So, it’s not done and dusted, but I think it’s imminent. If it happens, I’m hopeful it will be viewed as the anomaly that it is. But it will probably have a negative impact on football as a whole. It’s an extremely huge sum of money for a single player. More than 60 million pounds beyond the previous record. The Sheikh couldn’t break the record by 10 or 20 million? That’s just pissing money away. And, it remains unclear what percentage of this fee will go directly to Jesus. Typically, Jesus was unavailable for comment. Right.

So, COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

PS – Sorry for the late post. New job prevents me from being very timely.

Bendtner 83 – Divers: none

Riveting, was it not? Oofa… I had a hard time staying awake for that one, after waiting all night for the torrent. Someone posted the second half earlier in a wide format, but I really wanted to see the whole thing, so I waited for the usual source. Bad move.

As expected, Bolton tried to compensate for their being utter shit by packing the box with pretty much everyone. It looked as if they had all 11 players plus the’re four subs in the box for the duration. Not that we threatened their goal very much. Despite having 99.4% possession and Captain Kolo doing a fine job pressing the boys on, we seemed content to practice passing and probe their defense for most of the match. To be fair, there was some lovely passing in evidence, but not much of it actually entered the Bolton area. But eventually, Robin van Persie made a nice little move up the left side, put a beautiful cross over to the far post where Niklas Bendtner came sliding to hoof it in. It felt good seeing Nik get the goal. He might have had two, but he’s been struggling a bit lately. Last season, his return vs the amount of time spent on the pitch was pretty impressive. He’s getting just as little time this season, but people expect just as many goals. I think he needs more 90 minute sessions, but that’s hard to justify with RvP and Adebayor available. But hopefully this goal will set him about finding his form.

So, now we’re off to Hull City. Wherever the hell that is. It’s going to be a tough match, but we owe them one. I seriously hope the boys are up for this one and get some revenge. An away win, after seven consecutive matches without a defeat, would be a great boost to team confidence.

Transfer Bits: The Arshavin Saga continues. Some of the other blogs are reporting that Man City are pissed at us for Kolo not being sold to them and are planning to disrupt the Arshavin deal. I find that unlikely now that they’ve tabled a £100 million bid for Kaka. More interestingly, there’s a report that we might be pursuing Jimmy Bullard. I’ve said several times that Jimmy would fit great with us. But, this is probably hooey as well. We’ll see.

Gallas 81 – Divers: none

ZZZZzzzzzz… snort… drool… ZZZZZZzzzzz… huh, wha? sniff… Hey, look! We won a match. Back in the top… fourrr… ZZZZZZzzzzzz….

Have I made my point? What a fucking boring piece of football that business was. The three points are very much appreciated, but my god were we ever playing on dead legs. Nice effort by William Gallas at 81′ to head one in while simultaneously getting the French punched out of him by David James. It was about time too. Opting for the 8-1-1, Portsmouth played a very closed match. Every time we got the ball down field it was a passing exhibit trying to find a crack to get in. But, Ol’ Tony Adams visit back to his old club sent him packing without a point to show for it when we finally got in on a corner. Now hopefully Hull can eviscerate Aston Villa in two days and we’ll keep our spot in 4th.

Next up, Plymouth visits The Grove for our first FA Cup tie for the season. Not sure what to make of that one. We’ve got a break until the following week with the Prem, so Arsène may play a pretty full squad. Well, as full as it can get with all the injuries. After that, it’s back to Prem action with Bolton and then another reaming by match against Hull City. If that can be considered a lull in the action, then we’ll take it. We need it to catch our breath and take stock.