SAME again at Wembley, please.
Arsene Wenger praised a patient performance from his Arsenal side as they saw off Hull City - who they will take on in the FA Cup final - to remain on course for fourth place in the Barclays Premier League, and Champions League qualification.
Hull started brightly at the KC Stadium but Aaron Ramsey gave Arsenal a 31st-minute lead and Lukas Podolski's double secured a 3-0 win for Wenger's men. That was enough to ensure they would hold on to fourth place in the league ahead of Everton. "It was a big win," admitted Wenger. "The first half was very physical, played at a very high pace, our defenders needed to be very strong on crosses in the air.
"We looked dangerous when we went into their half and took advantage of that. In the second half, when we scored the third goal we controlled the game completely."
Ramsey's goal capped an impressive first league start since Boxing Day for the Welshman, while Wenger was also able to recall Mesut Oezil for his first appearance since March 11 following hamstring trouble.
"We were having problems scoring goals away from home and [Ramsey]and Oezil give us a cutting edge in the final third that makes us much more dangerous," said Wenger.
"Oezil has always the timing of the pass; the incisiveness of his passing helps you turn quickly from defence to offence. Football is down to quality of the players and you could see that."
Steve Bruce, the Hull manager, was encouraged by his side's performance but bemoaned missed opportunities and what he saw as a game-changing decision by referee Jon Moss.
In the build-up to Podolski's first goal just before half-time, striker Nikica Jelavic went down under Mikel Arteta's challenge inside the Arsenal half. It looked a foul on first viewing and while replays were less conclusive, Bruce was furious no free kick was given.
"The first goal, you have to say, it's a typical Arsenal goal," he said. "Sometimes you hold your hand up and say it's a real quality goal. But the big turning point in the game, we're talking about a refereeing decision again. Everybody in the ground expected a free kick, we didn't get it and again, a bit of quality from Arsenal - it's a terrific finish from Podolski - and after playing really well we're 2-0 down at half-time."
Shane Long was withdrawn at the break and Bruce explained: "He's got a whack to the back of his calf. He'll be touch and go for the weekend, I would have thought."
Bruce also revealed forward Sone Aluko's absence from the matchday squad was due to a hamstring injury.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article