Glorious Gunners

Hull City 1-3 Arsenal

Arsenal produced a masterful first half display against Hull City on Monday to essentially guarantee a top four finish this season.

The Gunners are now 9 points clear of fifth place Liverpool (twelve ahead of Tottenham)

with Brendan Rodgers’ side only having 3 games left to play and a vastly inferior goal difference to Arsenal.

Unlike recent seasons, Wenger and his players are not satisfied with a top four finish as the chance to end the season in second place for the first time in a decade is still a real possibility. In many ways this change in mentality represents the progress the club has made over the past two seasons. Criticised for celebrating wildly at Newcastle two years ago, having secured fourth place on the last day of the season, Arsenal now do not see that as an achievement, instead it is the bare minimum requirement.

Having witnessed a supreme performance on Monday night, full of wonderful attacking play of the highest calibre, moves which thrill supporters and instinctively gets them up on their feet, Wenger must rue the bad start his side made to this campaign but at the same time must be excited for next season already. This team can really go far.

It took some time at the start of this season for the new arrivals to settle in and get used to their surroundings, while several first team players also arrived back late from the World Cup. But just before the turn of the year everything began to click as the Gunners embarked on their excellent run of form, winning 17 of their last 20 games.

Going to Hull was no easy task, with Steve Bruce’s side battling for their lives and having recently secured a famous home win against Liverpool. Arsenal controlled the game brilliantly however, as they kept their opponents at arm’s length before pouncing on any mistakes in lethal fashion. The Gunners attacking play was excellent throughout the game, at times they flicked the ball amongst each other causing Hull’s defence to suffer from severe dizziness.

But in order to play their free flowing attacking game, Arsenal have to earn the right to play. The Gunners boast the third best defensive record in the league, with much praise heaped on defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin for the excellent work he has done in shielding the back four. However the attacking players must also be praised for the hard work they have put in when the Gunners lose possession. In previous seasons, Arsenal would collectively switch off once they lost the ball and before they knew it the opposition were through on the Gunners goal. This year however, the introduction of Alexis Sanchez appears to have changed that. The Chilean’s supreme work rate and willingness to chase back time and time again to help his defence, has rubbed off on his teammates. So much so in fact that even Mesut Ozil has started to chase the ball back.

The German’s performance against Hull was exceptional. He was simply outstanding on the ball, one flick to Sanchez in the second half leaving those watching with mouths wide open in sheer awe. But Ozil also showed tremendous work rate, a side of his game for which he has been criticised in the past. He was instrumental in both the first and third goals on Monday night, all thanks to his increased work rate. For the first goal, it was Ozil who caught Tom Huddlestone dawdling on the ball, to steal possession from the former Tottenham man, before releasing the ball to Sanchez, whose run towards goal was crudely halted by another former Tottenham player Jake Livermore, who having already received a yellow card, could consider himself fortunate not to have received a second. Arsenal still managed to punish Hull from the resulting free kick as Sanchez’s effort was deflected beyond Steve Harper by former Tottenham captain Matt Dawson. Having celebrated St Totteringham’s Day on Sunday (the point in every season which confirms that Arsenal will finish above Tottenham once again) it was rather apt for Arsenal to go one-nil up with three former Tottenham players involved!

Ozil was at it again for the third goal.  As Hull played the ball forward from central defence to Huddlestone, Ozil and Sanchez chased the Englishman down, surrounded him and relieved him of the ball. Watching the desire and hunger of Ozil to work so hard for the team was a joy to behold. Ozil’s pass found Ramsey whose perfectly weighted through ball picked out the run of Sanchez beautifully and the Chilean, having earlier been denied in a one on one situation with Harper, when he had attempted to lift the ball over the goalkeeper, this time elected to take the ball around him and fire home into the empty net to give the Gunners a three goal lead just before half time.

Sandwiched in between Sanchez’s two goals was a wonderful goal from Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman has sacrificed his natural game in recent weeks for the sake of his team, occupying the right hand side of midfield rather than his favoured central midfield role and got the reward his selflessness deserved. Ramsey stated recently that he has been studying the runs Freddie Ljungberg used to make for the Gunners as he would ghost into the area, receive the ball and score. The revision seemed to have paid off yesterday. As Cazorla received the ball on the halfway line, Ramsey embarked on a run in between Hull’s back three and was found with a wonderful pass from the Spaniard. Ramsey’s first touch was immaculate, killing the ball dead, before spinning round and firing home.

Given their dominance of this game, Arsenal may well look back and regret not scoring more, reducing their goal difference deficit to Manchester City further. They did create a number of opportunities and should have had a penalty when Jack Wilshere’s shot towards an open goal was blocked by a defender’s hand, but Wenger will be happy with the performance and the three points, having seen his side concede early in the second half, but remaining defensively solid, to withstand any further attacks.

The return of Wilshere was also a positive note, especially the level of performance he displayed. The Englishman showed he has not lost his burst of acceleration, or his supreme ball control, as he ghosted past a number of tackles on several occasions. His return to first team action during the end of season run in could prove extremely crucial as the fight for a second place finish looks set to go down to the wire.