Hull City manager Marco Silva insists that the scoreline in 2-0 defeat to Arsenal was unjust, and admittedly he has some reasons to feel hard done-by.
The Gunners took the lead in the first half fortunately. A clearance near the line was hit up onto Alexis Sanchez’s hand, before going over the line, and with his hand being in an unnatural position, there could have been no complaint had it been ruled out. The goal did come amidst strong pressure from our side however, but we failed to be clinical with the remainder of our chances.
The Tigers came back at us after the break, putting some serious pressure on our side, and had they been more composed in front of goal, it would have been of little surprise to have conceded, but it wasn’t to be, and the game was then killed in the dying minutes of the game by a penalty, although there should be no complaint about that decision.
Marco Silva has now revealed his unhappiness with the final result. “2-0 isn’t the story of the game,” the Tigers boss said.
“Sure, we didn’t start well in the first half and we were losing the ball in some important zones but after this we started to have better control in the game.
“Arsenal scored the first goal with handball and the referee apologised to my players at the start of the second half but it is not good for us. But we make mistakes and sometimes referees do the same.
“It was a very good second half for our team and we controlled the second half. Arsenal caused us a couple of problems with counter-attacks, but we had our chances to score and to change the result. We didn’t have a good day because our final decisions with those chances weren’t good.
“I don’t want to talk only about the referee, but it is true that Arsenal should have maybe only had ten men (after Kieran Gibbs’ second half foul on Lazar Markovic). Markovic had the chance to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper. It is another important decision in the game.”
Silva wasn’t completed down-hearted about his side’s performance however, saying: “I saw some positive things in the game.
“I didn’t like the way we started but we reacted and I am happy that the team showed good things again.
“We caused Arsenal plenty of problems and I want the team to continue with the progress we are making.
“We have time before our next game – time to rest and time to work on things for the next game.”
Were we somewhat lucky today? Did the Alexis goal change the game?
Pat J