Arsenal need another George Graham scoreline to overcome difficult Hull City
Premier League
Arsenal (0) 1 Odegaard 72
Hull City (0) 0
These are the bread and butter games you need to keep on the right track. The 3pm, untelevised Saturday afternoon slot where you aim to pick up those undramatic, injury-free three pointers.
After a European away trip, home games like this are just what you need. And although Premier League newbies Hull have done unexpectedly well in the first months of their latest top flight adventure, this one looked like a gimmie.
So much for that easy-street theory. This was a tough old contest, make no mistake.
The Gunners needed extreme patience against the dogged Tigers and had to wait until the 72nd minute to break their resistance.
Noni Madueke, lively throughout, fired low at keeper Konstantinos Tzolakis and from the rebound, Martin Odegaard pounced for what proved to be the only goal of the game. The skipper is getting some vital goals this season.
They needed it. The cheap set piece goals seem to have deserted them this season so goals of any variety from open play are to be welcomed by Mikel Arteta's men.
Hull pressed end harried. They were athletic, quick and organised, giving little away. Arsenal offered only fleeting moments of danger, with Declan Rice blasting just wide and heading a god chance at Tzolakis, while Christos Tzolis ended a good move by booting high into the stands.
There was hope that a shirt tug on Kai Havertz by Nobel Mendy might yield a penalty but an offside call saved the Tigers. Perhaps it was justice given that the Gunners got away with a comparable incident at Liverpool last week.
The Gunners upped the tempo and eventually gained their reward. But this 3pm gimmie proved to be no such thing.
They know they can and must play better than this but they are sitting pretty going into the next international break at the top of the table.
Gunners: (4-2-3-1) Raya - Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori (Hincapie 69) - Rice (Merino 63), Bruno Guimaraes (Zubimendi 89) - Madueke, Odegaard, Tzolis (Eze 69) - Havertz (Gyokeres 63)
Tigers: (5-3-2) Tzolakis - Coyle (Norton- Cuffy 61), Ajayi (Herrington 69), Egan, Mendy, Stroud (Giles 75) - iroegbunam (Mouzakatis 75), Gourna-Douath, Slater - Cho (Gelhardt 61), McBurnie
Attendance: 60,285
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