“They defended well but overall we managed to score the goal then after the missed penalty we had to be serious and score the next goal”. He at least knows recent history is against City, whose impressive sprint from the blocks mirrors that of 12 months ago, when they won their first five league games without conceding a goal, but still ended up being out-lasted by the Frenchman’s perennial Champions League qualifiers, who finished two places and five points above them. We played 0-0 at Leicester, but we had two or three opportunities. Saturday’s victory was their seventh in a row on Humberside, where their last defeat came in 1915. “That gives me more confidence for every game I play”. “He likes to come deep and distribute the game, but he has the engine to have the impact with his runs”.
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“Away from home, we look more convincing”, he said.
Asked if this was a big season for Walcott, 27, he added: “He was influential in both halves of the game with the quality of his runs, he is very unsafe”.
On-going takeover talks and uncertainty over the future of caretaker manager Mike Phelan, who is yet to accept an offer to take the job full-time, have contributed towards the downturn in results for the pre-season relegation favourites, who had pulled it back to 2-1 with a late penalty from Scotland midfielder Robert Snodgrass.
Though Alexis Sanchez with two, Theo Walcott and Granit Xhaka were the goalscorers, Alex Iwobi was the real star. He was stunning against Hull and his backheel to put Theo Walcott through for Arsenal’s second goal was sublime.
The problem for me is, that even against Hull, who were reduced to 10 men and we had 2 goal lead, that Arsenal moment came out of nowhere and Cech could’ve been sent off.
Steve McManaman has questioned Arsenal fans complaining about the absence of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Perez on Saturday, speaking to BT Sport. Mustafi 6, Koscielny 7, Monreal 6; Coquelin 7, Cazorla 7 (Xhaka 67, 7); Walcott 8 (Perez 88), Ozil 7, IWOBI 8 (Elneny 77); Sanchez 8.
Wenger said: “I’d prefer to be five points ahead, but it’s only five games played”.
“I’ve now got to read those terms and have a good look at them tomorrow”.
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Hull have taken one point from three games since opening the season with back-to-back victories.
