Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Arteta, Ramsey, Cazorla, Ozil, Podolski, Giroud
Subs: Fabianski, Jenkinson, Flamini, Kallstrom, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Sanogo
Lukas Podolski grabbed his second brace of the week as he led the Gunners to a convincing 3-0 victory against Hull City in a dress rehearsal of the FA Cup final. The German international grabbed a goal either side of half-time after Aaron Ramsey’s fantastic opener as Arsene Wenger’s men overcame early pressure from the home side to outclass their hosts.
In a bruising first half Wojciech Szczesny was by far the busiest Arsenal player but for all Hull’s physicality and pressure it was the Gunners’ ruthlessness on the break that paid dividends.
For the first 30 minutes the Gunners defence were expertly marshalled by the Pole in goal as he came and claimed a series of lofted balls aimed at strike duo Long and Jelavic. Both attackers did forge chances as Steve Bruce willed his side to pressure from the front; the former slashing wide and the latter having an effort tipped brilliantly around the post by Szczesny.
Mertesacker and Myler picked up bookings and Arteta lost a tooth and took a blow to the head as things heated up in the midfield. Tackles flew in from both sides.
The Gunners should have had a penalty when the returning Ozil had his legs clipped on 10 minutes by Elmohamady, the referee waved away the claims, before Podolski had a drive saved by Harper.
It wasn’t until the half hour mark that Arsenal finally found their attacking mojo. Ramsey was the man who smashed home the ball inside the far post with clinical aplomb, but the build-up play which involved most of the team – tip of the cap to Messrs Cazorla and Ozil in particular – weaving the ball from the right touchline into the middle and then into the box was fantastic. (1-0)
Livermore hit the post for the home side seven minutes later but for all their huff and puff Arsenal were undoubtedly the more dangerous side and they doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Hull were furious that an Arteta challenge on Jelavic wasn’t deemed a foul and on the break the Gunners were ruthless. Cazorla found Ozil who in turn fed Giroud on the right wing. The Frenchman’s lofted cross skipped over the Hull defence where Ramsey chested the ball down for Podolski who hammered home low on the volley. The home support screamed abuse at the officials as the men in red celebrated a second fine goal. (2-0)
It took only eight minutes of the second half for the Gunners to forge their third. Monreal and Cazorla combined down the left, Aaron Ramsey cracked a low effort which Harper could only palm into Podolski’s path and the German after a solid first touch tapped home for his 13th of the season. (3-0)
The strike effectively killed off the game and afforded Arsenal the chance to play prolonged periods of keep ball. Unsurprisingly, Mesut Ozil was the first man to make way; a solid sixty minutes under his belt he was replaced by Mathieu Flamini.
Giroud took advantage of slack goalkeeping by Harper to nearly grab a fourth. The Hull keeper dallied as he waited to collect a back pass and when he finally reached the ball was pressured by the Frenchman who nipped in only to hit the bar from a tight angle. On 73 minutes, limping slightly after a battering from several Hull defenders, he made way to be replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Mertesacker headed just over from a Cazorla free-kick with 15 minutes remaining, Chamberlain should have had a penalty, Huddlestone forced Szczesny into a save before Sanogo came on for the last seven minutes in place of Podolski.
The game had long since petered out, not that anyone in red and white minded, as the three points returned to London.
It’s eight days until we entertain Alan Pardew’s under-par Newcastle United, so a welcome opportunity to nurse knocks and rest heavy limbs. We’ve three games to go and a bit of momentum for the first time in months. If we keep winning, we might just manage a smile come mid-May after all.
Happy Easter everyone.
COYG! Podolski proving his worth, gotta love that
If he’d have been able to hit that first chance with his left foot, he would have got a well-deserved hat trick
We were Denied two clear penalties!
Stop moaning jose-cunt!
And yes john terry continues to be a massive cunt!
Podolski. Less #aha, more #grrr. Love it!!!
Still! I dont think olivier giroud is good enough to lead an arsenal team! On a 4-3-2-1 But he is a very good squad player/back up cf! And should thrive in a 4-4-2 setup alongside a pacey and more clinical striker like prince goaldoski! Lukas goaldoski! My God! We would be absolutely inane to let this guy leave in the summer! This guy is the most, I repeat “The most” Clinical striker in the premier league(would love to look at his conversion rate), Hate to say this, but chelsea would be EPL champions by a mile with lukas as their… Read more »
Holy shite! Dont tell me i forgot ozil! Good to see him back. Love you ozil
Inane. Insane?
Nope. Previgo’s right. Inane’s a word – similar meaning to insane here.
Inane.
Interesting that a comment like yours, Previgo, should get so many thumbs down, presumably for massive overstatement on all fronts. Giroud is much under-estimated by people like you, but few disagree (probably including himself) that he’s disappointed on occasions this season as a lone striker. Yet he’s still our leading scorer with 20 goals so far this season — and our top scorer last season, Walcott, scored just 21 (Giroud scored 17). Podolski has a great scoring record. He’s beginning to show that, with a bit more effort and imagination the remaining 90% of the time he’s on the pitch,… Read more »
#Manzukic #summer #justdoit
please tell me why you want mandzukic? He is just as good as giroud, did you se how good giroud was today having players moving around him today ? he has missed ramsey and özil, imagine a hole season with theo ramsey özil chamberlain. manduzikic its not that good..if we are gonna buy a striker, buy a GOOOOD striker.
Dat pass by Ozil in the build up to the first goal
Exactly my thoughts. How people can call this guy a flop I’ll never know
Mostly due to lack of a brain, partly due to their ability to ‘read’ the newspapers.
So happy that Ozil is finally back!! Hope people can see now the difference between our attacking play with & without him.
COYG, let’s do this again on the FA Cup final!
Guys, not to put a dampener on things, but we beat Birmingham away 3-0 the season they beat us on the league cup final
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9328059.stm
ummmm hull won’t be able to have jelavic and long on the field at wembley, hull will be even more toothless than they were today
That doesn’t mean anything in the present day
thanks for putting a dampener on things.
Bloody hell, this was quick.
Great win, now lets try and nick 3rd place off Moaninho and his pack of cunts
Had even forgotten Arsenal can be this good. Well played. Ramsey and Podolski, massive performance. Now there is that small matter of the Final, hope for the same. COYG
Its funny what having a fit first team midfield does for you.
Blogs, you’re like the Usain Bolt of post match reports.
You mean appearing in crappy ISP ads?
I want Ramsey to have my babies!
What would he do with them? :/
Teach them to be a better footballer than me of course.
Unnecessarily stupid.
Go for 3rd! City have lost their mojo.
So has a certain sarcastic Portuguese and his racist twat-faced captain. Go for 2nd!
I fancy 3rd and FA Cup 😀
As long as Mesut and Aaron on the pitch I’m hardly ever worried about the result… Bring in the remaining games and the FA Cup. Third place and the FA Cup would actually be pretty shweet
We should have won the league!! 🙁
Giroud was brilliant tho
#welshjesus
A shame really that performances like this against lesser teams may have put us in the hunt for the title along with a decent shift against the top 5.
Solid defense when pressure was mounting and decent finishing to shift the tide of the battle.
Great win, i hope our player don’t become complacent for the final because of this game.
I almost think complacency would work for us, it’s when we’re trying too hard and the pressure is on that we really struggle…if we see it as a foregone conclusion and just turn up and pass it we’re likely to win imo.
Well played by arsenal. Giroud ozil back on form. And ramsey when isnt he on form
Form is temporary. Ramsey is permanent.
Arteta’s perfect hair is also permanent.
Unfortunately his teeth aren’t. Which Lego set do teeth come in?
and so is my love for The Arsenal. COYG!
It’s no coincidence that as soon as ozil and Ramsey come back we begin to rediscover our fluidity. Those two have certainly been missed.
I dunno, neither played against West Ham and that was when we started playing like this.
Then again, it’s mostly a confidence thing, so the lift their return has given us combined with Poldi discovering he can actually give that extra 10% might well be the reason.
Ramsey played against West Ham, and had an assist after 300 seconds on the field….
Yeah? Could have sworn I remembered seeing him ready to come on as a sub, after we had started playing well too, maybe it was another game, if so ignore me.
nah we just start playing well once the league title is gone
The tweets from Arsenal fans today were on point, good job guys
Great win although I fear another deadline day scramble because we can’t really guarantee champs league football to lionel messi until we clear the play-offs
Actually yeah, we should really go in for Messi. He’s certainly worth a punt.
Great win.
Good performance form the team. I do hope that Arsenal wins the next four games (3 league games + the FA Cup final).
Brilliant performance today by the whole team In what looked like being a difficult game for the first 20 minutes, we are a different side with Ramsey and Ozil back.
Grrat performance. Ramsey was class, Poldi’s goals were superb. Arsene’s subs were spot on as well. Plus a clean sheet!!!!
Good show by the team, out of the rut we were in for 2-3 weeks in Mar-Apr.
This just shows that there is room for couple more quality additions to the team while keeping them all happy.
If we had quality replacements for Ramsey & Ozil, we still would have been in with a chance for the title. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for more mid-fielders, someone who can score/assist in similar numbers to them be it wingers or forwards.
If we had quality replacements for Ozil and Ramsey we would be owned by an oil magnet!
Oil magnet?
they point towards underground mineral deposits unlike normal magnets which point towards magnetic north and idiot magnets which attract…erm…
Everyone seems to forget how much we miss Theo…
Giroud, aka the new Torres, maybe if he stays on his feet a bit more, he might score
He does go down a bit easy but we love him!
Fuck off with your negativity.
Thank you for your positivity
torres score 25 goal all national competition (PL/FAC/LC) in the last 4 years at chav , giroud score 32 goal in 2 years for arsenal . pfff stop talking shit ,torres wish he was Olivier giroud
to make it worst for the blues shit from south london demba ba score 10 goal in same competition in his 2 years for chav , etoo 9 goal this year all competition
if chelsea would have giroud in front they would be top of the league and
Some serious joga bonito was happening in that match
Thats the arsenal we know and love.
By my count (and please do correct me if I’m wrong) that’s two assists and a goal since Welsh Jesus was ‘resurrected’.
Can’t help but imagine what might have been had he been fit for the whole season.
3 assists* – if a player shoots and the keeper saves it and then another player gets the rebound that’s an assist (i.e poldi’s second goal)
Are you sure?
Rambo makes us title contenders he’s that good, same class as Suarez, Hazard etc.
I’d have Ramsey over Hazard all day
We should of had both 🙁
What a different ramsey has made to arsenal play. Making countless runs into the box. Providing the extra body. He was involved in all three goals today. What a talent.
Great game today. Enjoyed it so much. Ramsey and podolski played wel. Welcum back ozil
SZCZ was great today, although his delivery really needs to be worked on.
But how great was it to see Ramsey celebrating a goal again, eh?
Yeah, but my hair still looks amazing.
Phew! It was a really dull start. But quality and experience showed clearly in the way we shut the game out. My only crib is that when we have pedal on the gas the team should put 5-6 in the net. Goal difference can be crucial at the end. Anyways a good job. Keep up the momentum. COYG!
Great performance. Best away performance for ages. Now fucking do the same in the cup final!!
No need to swear just enjoy
Missing my fucking point here – fatgooner thinks he is in charge of Arsenal and always looks on the negative – never mind…
“Great performance. Best away performance for ages.”
Explain how this is negative.
That was awesome
It was like the Arsenal of old – soaked up the pressure, hit them on the break then seized control of the game and never let go. Brilliant away performance.
Based on this display Ozil should keep ‘nicking’ his living at Arsenal for a long, long time.
Also great to see Ramsey back. His goal killed Moron-ho’s unbeaten streak yesterday and the assists were great too. Now just hope Man Utd wins *vomits blood* and we can seal that top 4 finish.
Finally hats off to Lukas – 4 goals in a week makes me think that maybe we should alter our system to suit him as much as possible – So clinical…
Ramsey was magnificent.
Just five words to say;
Aaron and Mesut are back!
FA Cup in the bag, Champions League in the bag, the ability and determination to spend big in the Summer………maybe I’m a dreamer…
Why not like this?
This is more like it! In Kanye’s tune, this is the shit I just like!
I can’t help but notice that Podolski refrains from celebrating much after goals. Why would that be?
Clearly he’s angling for a move to hull.
He’s not _shown_ to celebrate much today; you might be right but if you weren’t there you’re seeing what Sky want you to see.
I think his celebrations at Shite Hart Lane easily made up for it anyway 🙂
Great to have Ozil and Ramsey back. Ozil is definitely not 100% fit right now, but as he does had moments of brilliance that we’ve missed. I think Ramsey showed today what we’ve missed without him all these months. His energy and driving into the box from such a deep position were things we’ve really missed.
Future Fact
Ramsey will be player of the year within 3 years
Ramsey will get more than 30 goals a season for 3 seasons running. you hear it here first.
#Future #Facts
I’ve given Ramsey quite some stick during a couple of seasons … but my god, what a player he has become!!
If only Wenger can find a tactic to use against the bigger teams … then we can truly compete for the title
Aaron Ramsey has become such a multi-dimensional midfielder. He’s become a real goal threat but I think his long passes require some attention too.
To come back from a long injury and play like this shows that he’s the real deal. That form during the first chunk of the season wasn’t just some flash in the pan
Cheers to a heart attack free Sunday afternoon…happy holidays gooners!
Poldi playing regularly and with confidence makes him a completely different animal! Gives us a different dimension the guy is the definition of clinical. What else needs to be said about Rambo and Ozil?! Oh how I’ve missed those two
Great victory…we played well. Ramsey is king! However, I can’t stop thinking of what would have become of our season if he was fit all this while and wenger didn’t run him and other key players into the ground. If wenger had devised a formation that takes off that defensive responsibility off podolski and let him be the goalscoring assassin he can be. Imagine if he had strengthened in the transfer window….Imagine if he had what it takes not to be annihilated in the big games. Looking at Liverpool sitting at the top of the league hurts…that should be US…The… Read more »