Morning guys.
So we face the newly promoted Hull City today at 3pm. Having earned promotion via the playoffs, mostly due to Southampton’s spygate fiasco, but nevertheless, when the opportunity arose, they took it and they’ve been doing pretty well. In came 17, yes, 17 new players back in the summer for a £150+ million. It’s what a lot of promoted clubs do, spend what promotion has earned them.
Their season started better than anyone probably expected when they thumped Man Utd 2-0 on the opening day of the season. A 1-0 win at fellow newly promoted Coventry City the following weekend caused pundits/media to take note, however… they’ve not won a game since. A draw at Chelsea, defeats against Newcastle Utd and Fulham followed by coming back from trailing 1-0 against Ipswich Town to taking a point.
Hull City will be without Matt Crooks who is suspended and Lucas Gourma-Douagh, Charlie Hughes, Darko Gyabi and Ilyas Ansah miss out through injury. as well as Matt Targett (ankle), Ilyas Ansah and Eliot Matazo who are long term absentees.
Arsenal have just Bukayo Saka missing through injury which of course means he’s not been included in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad, nor has Noni Madueke but Ebe Eze, Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ezri Konsa and Ben White have. Five Arsenal players in an England squad which will in all likelihood be seven on another day.
There is a great piece on Arsenal.com about the clubs history with Hull City. For the younger fans, I’d imagine the FA Cup Final back in Arsene Wenger’s days springs to mind but for some of us (not me I hasten to add) passed on memories of the Herbert Chapman era will not be forgotten.
It was in 1930 when Chapman’s Arsenal faced a defensively strong Hull City in an FA Cup replay when striker Joe Hulme said that “pace was really the only thing which could do the Hull defence any damage” Ironically, Hulme was injured for the replay but it was indeed a fast break and clinical finish which saw us into the final. A final we won 2-0. Arsenal’s captain back in the day Tom Parker said:
If we’d lost, the story of Arsenal could have been very different. As it was, exactly a month after the replay victory, Chapman’s side defeated Huddersfield 2-0 in the FA Cup final. A year later, the First Division championship followed, ushering in a golden period for the club.
The shackles were finally off, and the rest is history.
Herbert Chapman will always remain a huge part of the club’s history too, a successful history. Something I think Mikel Arteta will be too. An FA Cup final win in his first season followed by a Premier League title a few years later. But he’ll want more, a lot more, just as we all do.
Back to today’s game and what we can expect from Hull City which comes from Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke, who has been writing in the official matchday programme:
Hull are masters of the low block, sitting back in a 5-4-1 shape. Their back three play very narrow, with two incredibly hard-working defensive midfielders offering protection.
But the Tigers are not solely a defensive unit. When they can force a turnover or launch a rapid counter, they are very proficient at creating goalscoring chances. Their average direct speed (2.15metres/sec) is the fastest in the top-flight, meaning they can turn defence into attack very smoothly, while set pieces are a real forte, scoring twice from dead-ball situations on the opening weekend.
In terms of dangermen, attacking midfielder Mohamed Belloumi is clever on the ball, and with three goals and two assists to his name, he can produce a moment of magic. Left wing-back Ryan Giles has also delivered 52 crosses in open play, a full 20 more than any other player in the division! He has only found a teammate with nine of those, but the supply line is very consistent.
Hull have made a lot of individual errors, with five leading to goals already. They must also improve their ball retention, as their 71.5% passing accuracy ranks them 20th. Relinquishing the ball so easily means their back five can often be overworked.
It’s important Arsenal start on the front foot today because allowing Hull to settle into a defensive setup would go against us. The last thing we need is another hard slog for 95 minutes trying to break down a defence because quite honestly, we not always very good at it. Going by what Adrian Clarke suggests, we’ll need to be careful should we lose the ball in attack as Hull have the ability to break quickly. Hull have already held Chelsea, Villa, Brentford and Everton to draws so they are no fools.
Sergej Jakirovic’s side are not shy when it comes to getting stuck in and they are more than happy to make the game uncomfortable for their opponents by surrendering possession and trying to disrupt the rhythm of the game. Aka- playing dark arts football.
Interestingly, it was said back in the Chapman era that it was often against the “lesser teams” when Arsenal came unstuck.
Not today please Arsenal, not today….
Catch up later.
