Rewards from range

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
13 Mar	3:00 PM	P	Hull City (A)	2	1	Win

First of all, let me congratulate the players for such a heroic performance, "Nick-ing" it right at the death (yes, it's that man Bendtner on target - AGAIN)!

Now, as injury time beckoned, and despite the glimmer of hope that fourth official Chris Foy's board carried, I was not particularly confident that we would snatch the win.

Not because we were playing particularly badly. On the contrary, it was all us; not surprising when considering the ability of our players on the ball. And, of course, the fact that Hull City did not get their opportunity to "ruffle a few feathers" in the second half, courtesy of George Boateng's silly red card at the end of the first period.

However, given Hull's resistance, the disastrous pitch, and one or two players simply having an off-day, we ran out of ideas. Camped in the home side's final third for much of the second half, everything Arshavin, Diaby et al threw at Hull was simply blocked out by hook or by crook.

Which neatly brings me on to the third of six on injury time minutes.

First, Gaël Clichy's potshot on the edge of the box tested an otherwise untroubled Boaz Myhill in the Hull goal. The rest is history.

A tenacious, twenty-five yard effort by Denilson was punched out by Myhill, and the in-form Dane duly pounced on the rebound. Cue screams of joy, relief, whatever you call it, in every Arsenal borough, street, pub, and household. A victory that was on the cards ever since Hull's equalising penalty from a blatantly offside position, snatched just when hope was running out. This, thanks in no small part to the little Brazilian's inventiveness, taking matters into his own hands, having decided that the through-ball to Walcott and square pass into the box routine was a tad repetitive.

Not that I'm attacking the way we played by the way. But, my point is, when we finally tried our luck from range, it caused Hull new problems to contend with.

And we got our just rewards for it. Massively.

Time and time again, many of us out there have voiced our frustration; sometimes anger, at our lack of shooting from outside the box, despite many presentable opportunities. Take yesterday's match, for example. Several times, with players running at the home side's rearguard, I remember shouting, "Shoot, shoot!", only for us to take one touch too many, pass or lose the ball altogether.

But for Denilson's long-range drive, which allowed Bendtner in at the death, and has given us a massive three points, you can imagine a painful scenario of "ifs" "buts" and "what might've beens" had Denilson not let fly. Three points that we might now look back on with great pride and admiration come the end of the season. And we have Denilson's tenacious thinking, and Bendtner's quick thinking to thank.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of putting in a mixed style of attempts on goal. Having reached a milestone one hundredth goal of the season with Arshavin's early opener at the KC Stadium (he should've bagged a hat-trick, by the way), we must also be able to show what Clichy and Denilson have shown in our play on a more regular basis as we enter the final furlong. Neat finishes after some classy one-touch football, powerful headers from effective set-piece play, and shots from range; akin to the style of play and goals scored by our direct rivals for the Championship.

This is especially true considering the blanket defensive approach that teams scrapping for points adopt, and will adopt against us in the season's final weeks; yesterday's encounter a case in point. Following Jimmy Bullard's equaliser, City never threatened, at least not truly, with a brief ten-minute period of pressure early in the second half. Instead, all we had was nine men behind the ball, allowing them to soak up the pressure and benefit from misplaced Arsenal passes or set pieces.

Deploying the weapon of shots from distance allowed us more than just the win. First, Hull were surprised that we had it in our locker, not least a scrambling Myhill who parried it straight in the face of the man of the moment, Bendtner. More importantly, the home side paid the ultimate price for their negation and lack of ambition. True, they defended manfully, and yes, they are a technically inferior side fighting with a man down; however, such play defied belief at times and we deserved final joy.

Finally, I leave you with this terrifically telling stat - Arsenal's last five matches have resulted in five injury-time goals (scoring fifteen in the last six minutes overall this season). Conversely, Hull City have conceded injury time goals in their last five outings.

I wonder if the players had that in their minds as the clock ticked ninety!? Of course they did, never in doubt!

Ok, who are we kidding?

Onto the next one! COME ON THE ARSENAL!

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