Arsenal were robbed again by Sam P
I am not saying that Arsenal were not disappointing against Hull City yesterday. We need to improve all over the pitch but I still think that Arsene Wenger was right when he pointed to the referee’s role in Hull’s first goal as a key point, probably the turning point in the game.
Up until then, the Gunners were totally dominant and although we only had one goal to show for our many chances, Hull had never looked like scoring. Mathieu Flamini was doing his job of covering the back four and was blatantly hauled back with both hands by Diame who then scored.
This changed the whole complexion of the game. We know how important the first goal if football is, especially if a creative, possession oriented team like Arsenal are playing a well organised, hard working and defensive team like Hull. If we had more than four minutes to enjoy our lead, Hull would have had to come out of their shells more and we could have used our pace and the ability of players like Welbeck and Alexis to exploit the extra space.
As it was, the ref failed to do his job and plonked us right in the mire, with Hull jubilant they had got away with it and the Gunners fuming. Yes Arsenal need to improve, but it would be nice if we had a level playing field once in a while. Look at the Chelsea game, where they got the opening goal from a penalty but we didn’t get our spot kick from the Fabregas handball. Then we chased the game and Costa hit us on the break. Arsenal would have been happy with a draw and the penalty should have given us that.
Small details can make a big difference in football and they are just not going for us at the minute. Don’t you agree?
VIDEO – Arsene Wenger’s post-match interview…looking depressed…