Bendtner Scores late on to seal all 3 points for the Gunners

With Manchester United not playing until Sunday Arsenal had the chance to move up into 2nd place in the table. They managed to do that but only just against Hull City at the KC Stadium.

The game did not start very lively but Hull got the first chance of the match when Jozy Altidore skipped past Sol Campbell but failed to hit the target. Arsenal then had a few chances but failed to score until Andrey Arshavin squeezed through two Hull defenders and fired home to give the away side the lead on 14 minutes.


Nothing much happened after that until Sol Campbell fouled Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink in the box to give Hull a penalty. Hesselink appeared to be offside in the build up but the linesman did not flag. It was up to Jimmy Bullard to give Hull the equaliser. He did and smashed the ball into the top right hand corner of Manuel Almunia's goal.

Arsenal kept possesion well and a dangerous tackle with studs showing on Denilson saw Dawson booked. Wengar looked concerned but Denilson was luckily not hurt. Bendtner and Boateng also were booked for an incident after the tackle.

In the dying minutes of the first half George Boateng of Hull was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Bacary Sagna. Referee Andre Marriner had no choice but to give him a second yellow card.

The score at half time was 1-1.

The second half did not start very lively either. But Arsenal had a feast of chances. Mainly through Andrey Arshavin. Unfortunately for the Gunners he could not convert them, just as Bendtner had failed to finish easy chances against Burnley last week.
Hull were still clinging on and getting forward with Altidore and Zayatte. Zayatte was convinced he was fouled mid way through the second half when a well timed aggresive tackle from Sol Campbell was put in but the referee made the right desicion and turned the Hull players away after much protests from them.

Arsenal finally got their winner in the third minute of added time. A powerful shot from Brazilian Denilson was turned straight back into the box by Hull keeper Boaz Myhill, where Nicklas Bendtner was waiting to prod the ball home from close range to give Arsenal a very important goal. That goal means it is turning out to be a very close title race.

Arsenal moved into second position for at least 24 hours and are now level on points with Chelsea.

Sorry I could not do a match report of the Porto game in mid week but I could not watch it and did not see the highlights. What a result anyway as that saw Arsenal into the quarter finals of the Champions League.