Nicklas Bendtner strikes as jaded Arsenal leave it very late

Posted Sunday, March 14, 2010 by theguardian.com

Nicklas Bendtner strikes as jaded Arsenal leave it very late
Arsenal's Sol Campbell concedes a penalty for his foul on Hull striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

This could be Arsenal's season after all. They moved above Manchester United into second place not with a football exhibition but thanks to a stoppage-time blunder from Boaz Myhill in the Hull goal. That was mightily cruel on the Tigers, who made light of having to play with 10 men for the whole of the second half and defended like their namesakes in keeping Arsenal at bay until the 93rd minute, but life is not always fair and many a title challenge has turned on such a piece of luck.

"It could be a defining moment, but we have had a few of those and a few late goals this season," Arsène Wenger said. "We are definitely in the title fight. We have eight games to go and we are in there, so why should we not believe we can do it?"

Hull were not quite as accommodating as Porto, yet after just 14 minutes of preliminary exchanges, Arsenal picked up where they left off in midweek by taking the lead with a goal of some quality. Andrey Arshavin's part in Tuesday's Champions League feast tended to be overlooked once Samir Nasri scored his wonder goal, but here the Russian reprised his trick of going past defenders at will in the penalty area and this time he was the beneficiary.

George Boateng's sending off just before half-time forced Hull City to defend. Their long balls into the box dried up and their only attacking threat came from the odd foray up the wings in the second half. Taking the ball from Nicklas Bendtner after a slick passing move, Arshavin used either his low centre of gravity or his knack of keeping possession when he seems to have shown too much to the defender to completely bamboozle George Boateng and Bernard Mendy before coolly stabbing the ball past Myhill.

The incisiveness of the strike made most of the home side's forward forays look pedestrian by comparison, yet somewhat fortuitously Hull were back on terms after half an hour. Fortuitously because Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was in an offside position when the ball came over the top of the Arsenal defence to reach him. Had the flag gone up Sol Campbell would have been in the clear; as it was he was obliged to clamber all over the striker and concede a penalty, one that Jimmy Bullard eagerly smashed past Manuel Almunia. Not that Phil Brown saw anything fortuitous about it. "That was the game's pivotal moment," the Hull manager said. "Sol was the last man and he denied a goal-scoring opportunity. He should have been red-carded."

The equaliser lifted Hull's confidence, yet still they failed to see out the 15 minutes to the interval without mishap. First Boateng became involved in an argument with Bendtner after Andy Dawson was booked for a foul on Denílson, and picked up a caution for slapping the Dane in the face. Then in stoppage time the Hull captain received a second yellow for a wild challenge on Bacary Sagna, knee-high and studs raised. While the crowd did not like it, Andre Marriner could have been accused of leniency by showing first yellow and then red.

A Campbell tackle on Kamil Zayatte at the start of the second half looked just as bad. Even though Campbell played the ball his follow through caught Zayatte's ankle and ended the Hull player's participation, which should at least give Wenger pause when he makes summary judgements.

"It was a good tackle," the Arsenal manager insisted. Brown disagreed. "It's all about intent, and the intent was to take the man out." As even Wenger accepted Campbell could have been dismissed for penalty incident the defender was pushing his luck when he got away with a handball on the edge of his area. For all that Hull showed more enterprise with 10 men than they had with 11, with Vennegoor of Hesselink possibly wishing he could play against Campbell every week and Jozy Altidore almost playing him in after a strong run.

Arsenal should have scored when Theo Walcott came on and opened up Hull with his first burst, only for Nasri to take a bad touch and Arshavin to make a bid for miss of the season from 10 yards. Most of the rest of the game was played on the edge of Hull's area, yet now Arsenal looked tired too, their passing laboured and the incisiveness gone. Hull were worth a point, one block by Steven Mouyokolo in particular deserved a draw, but just when they seemed to have done enough their reward was snatched away. Myhill could only parry Denílson's hopeful long shot, despite it coming straight at him, and Bendtner stole in to seal a significant victory. "We were jaded, there's no doubt about that," Wenger said. "But we'll keep going."

THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICTRICK SKELTON, HullCityOnline.com The best team probably won but it's still gutting to concede a last-minute winner, especially after that horrendous goalkeeping. I was really please with our performance, we worked really hard with 10 men and limited their chances, which isn't easy against a class team like Arsenal. It was a pretty stupid challenge from Boateng, he deserved to go, but it was a shame because we had them rattled at the time, Altidore was causing problems. We thought Campbell could've been sent off for the penalty, he was the last man. We'll miss the injured Zayette, but the youngster Liam Cooper was superb when he came on.

The fan's player ratings Myhill 4; Mendy 8, Mouyokolo 8, Zayette 7 (Cooper 55 9), Dawson 7; Fagan 6, Boateng 5, Bullard 7, Marney 7; Altidore 8 (Kilbane 82 n/a), Vennegoor of Hesselink 7 (Garcia 73 6)

BEN LOVER, Observer reader That was a huge win. Time was running out and we didn't really look like scoring, but we kept going and that could be a really significant three points. It was a strange game, we weren't at our best and the sending off didn't seem to change the nature of the game – we didn't create many chances. Well done to Nicklas Bendtner, he took his chance well. He's a confident lad and just needs to keep backing himself, he's certainly answered his critics in the past week after missing a hatful. The games are running out and we keep on winning – I don't want to jinx it but we're looking like a potential title-winning team.