HAVING scaled the heights against Porto in midweek, Arsenal, with 10-man Hull hanging tenaciously on to their shirt-tails, found themselves unable to get out of the foothills yesterday. Only deep into stoppage time were they able to shake the Tigers off, and it took an awful error from Boaz Myhill to enable them to do so; the City keeper should have either caught, or at least pushed to one side, Denilson’s hopeful shot — it was straight at him — but he punched it straight out to Nicklas Bendtner, who duly put it into the net.

It was Arsenal’s fifth stoppage-time goal in their past four matches, and as at Stoke two weeks ago, this one was crucial. Which only goes to show, said their manager Arsène Wenger, that however difficult the game, his young side had desire and mental strength.

And the belief they can win the title? “With eight games to go, why should we not believe?” asked the Frenchman. “What I do believe is we will give absolutely everything to do it. We saw that again here, we were a bit jaded, but we kept going.”

Arsenal’s early brilliance, epitomised in the four-man move that led to Andrey Arshavin’s opening goal after 14 minutes, threatened to embarrass Hull, but the goal served to energise the home team, and if there was nothing subtle about the way they went about their work, they unsettled Arsenal. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was offside running on to Dean Marney’s hope pass, but Sol Campbell’s attempted challenge was sufficiently clumsy for referee Andre Marriner to point to the spot.

Jimmy Bullard converted the penalty, but crucially, said City manager Phil Brown, Marriner chose not to send Campbell off. Given Hesselink did not have the ball under control, it was a moot point.

What Marriner could not do was fail to react to George Boateng’s appalling studs-up lunge at Bacary Sagna shortly before half-time, which only fortune dictated did not leave the Frenchman in the same condition as his teammate Aaron Ramsey. Remarkably Marriner only brought out a yellow card, but with Boateng already in the book for a silly tussle with Bendtner, he followed it with the red.

Whatever motivated the Hull players thereafter, it cannot have been a sense of injustice, but they applied themselves magnificently to the job of making Arsenal’s search for a winner as difficult as possible. Wenger turned to his bench, and it should have made an immediate difference, but although Theo Walcott set up first Arshavin and then Bendtner, neither chance was taken. It took Myhill’s poor goalkeeping to make the difference.

While Wenger’s team may have lost four out of four against Chelsea and Manchester United this season, this was their fifth Premier League win in a row, and in terms of matches remaining, they appear to face the least testing run-in of the three title contenders.

When it was put to Wenger that it looked comfortable, he smiled ruefully. “You have seen how comfortable it was here, when it was 1-1 after 90 minutes. It was 1-1 after 90 minutes at Stoke. That tells you how easy it will be.”

Brown was proud of his players. “I apologised to the Women’s Institute during the week for the fighting spirit we showed in public, but I don’t apologise for it today,” he said.

Star man: Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal)
Yellow cards: Hull: Dawson, Boateng Arsenal: Campbell, Bendtner Red card: Hull: Boateng
Referee: A Marriner
Attendance: 25,023

Hull: Myhill 6, Mendy 6, Zayatte 5 (Cooper 55min, 7), Mouyokolo 6, Dawson 6, Fagan 6, Boateng 3, Bullard 7, Marney 6, Vennegoor of Hesselink 7 (Garcia 73min), Altidore 7 (Kilbane 82min)Arsenal: Almunia 6, Sagna 6, Campbell 5, Vermaelen 7, Clichy 6, Denilson 7, Diaby 6, Eboue 6 (Walcott 65min), Nasri 5 (Eduardo 76min), Arshavin 6, Bendtner 8

GUNNERS ARE LAST-GASP MASTERS
Nicklas Bendtner’s late goal in last night’s 2-1 win at Hull was the seventh time Arsenal have scored in stoppage time in the Premier League this season, and the fifth time they have done it in the past four games in all competitions. It was the sixth time Hull have conceded in stoppage time in the league. Arsenal’s late win seemed inevitable. They have scored 15 goals in the last 10 minutes this season, more than any other Premier League side, while Hull have conceded 14 in the same period, also more than any other top-flight side.

To see how the match unfolded click here