Arsenal 2-0 Hull City: Tactical Analysis

Nicklas Bendtner celebrates his goal against Hull City

Arsenal played host to Hull City in the mid-week Premier League bonanza. Both the teams came into the match with wins at the weekend in their respective encounters. Hull City players, brimming with confidence after their surprise win over Liverpool, took on the league leaders in their own backyard. Arsenal were favourites going into the match and didn’t disappoint their fans. They came out victorious with goals from Nicklas Bendtner & Mesut Özil.

Starting XI:

Arsenal: Szcz?sny (GK), Mertesacker (C), Koscielny, Monreal, Jenkinson, Rosicky, Özil, Ramsey, Cazorla, Flamini, Bendtner

Hull City: McGregor (GK), Figueroa, Bruce, Chester, Meyler, Huddlestone (C), Livermore, El-Mohamady, Graham, Brady, Sagbo

A very strong first half for Arsenal

Arsenal this season have been dangerous going forward, particularly in the opening minutes of the match, this was pretty much evident in the UCL game against Marseille, with Jack Wilshere scoring in the first minute and Wilshere again going close to open the scoring in the Premier League clash against Cardiff City last week. And it was no different in this clash as well, with Jenkinson providing an excellent cross into the box and Nicklas Bendtner heading the ball into the net.

Lead up to the first goal

Rosicky finds Ramsey, who is allowed to pass the ball into the path of Jenkinson freely by Huddlestone

Rosicky provided a key pass to oncoming Ramsey, Huddlestone for a moment of second, looked to have eased up a bit behind Ramsey and didn’t apply any sort of pressure to win back the ball, and Ramsey on seeing Arsenal RB on the move, provided an excellent pass into the path of Jenkinson, who followed it up with a brilliant cross for Bendtner to head into the goal.

Arsenal began the match on an aggressive note, and fired around 14 shots at goal in the first 45 minutes. Arsenal supremely operated through the midfield in the first half of the game, and that’s but obvious, considering the form of Arsenal midfield players of late.

Arsenal first half action areas via squawka.com

On the other hand, Hull City played most of the match in their own half defending their goal. Özil swiftly changed his positions during the match trying to provide support to Nacho Monreal, who was moving forward through left side of the pitch.

Hull City first half action areas via squawka.cm

Hull City managed only three shots at goal, in comparison to Arsenal’s 14 shots in the first half. A lot was expected of Danny Graham going forward, but he had only one shot at goal which was saved by the Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szcz?sny. For Arsenal, the man in form Aaron Ramsey took a total of five shots at goal in the first half, but couldn’t manage to score past the Hull City keeper. Koscielny too had a glorious chance to double the lead for Arsenal from inside the box, when Hull city failed to clear the ball from a set piece, but the defender fired his shot way above the cross bar.

Arsenal dominated possession for most part of the first half, with around 63% and Hull City players had a huge task of keeping Arsenal out of their box. In the end, Hull City managed to keep the score to 1-0 going into half time.

Second half and lead up for the second goal

Arsenal started the second half aggressively scoring in the 47th minute through Mesut Özil.

Seeing the challenges from Hull defenders, Ramsey sent in a short pass towards Monreal, who at the right moment brought out his foot and kept the ball in play.

N.Monreal stretches to keep the ball in play

Hull City players seemed to have switched off, thinking the ball had gone out and Ramsey and Özil took advantage of this, and played a one two between them, with Özil losing his marker in the box and calmly putting the ball in the back of the net.

Ramsey finds Özil in the box with a brilliant pass, Özil gets ahead of the defender and slots the ball in the back of the net

The second half continued at a normal pace, with Hull players trying to get in the box and get past Arsenal defenders to score. But, the Arsenal defence have been at their best of late, and managed to clear the ball every time a shot was taken. Arsenal dropped a bit going forward in the second half and managed a total of only 6 shots at goal.

Arsenal seemed pretty comfortable throughout the match, making a total of 795 passes and managed 717 completed passes. Whereas Hull City managed to complete just 298 passes throughout the match. A look at both the teams passing is shown in the figure below.

Arsenal and Hull City pass comparison via squawka.com

Hull City have been ineffective in trying to play the ball in the oppositions half, and had to stay put in their own half for most of the period of the match. And their fewer attempts at goal only go on to show how strong the Arsenal defence has grown over the season. A look at the shots on goal, by both teams will show us exactly how effectively the Arsenal midfield combined together and took their chances.

Goal attempts by both the teams via squawka.com

It can clearly be seen that Arsenal didn’t mind and were not afraid of taking the shots from outside the box as well, with Ramsey having to make McGregor stretch out wide to parry his shot away for a corner in the first half.

Conclusion

Looking at the next set of fixtures lined up for Arsenal in the Premier League, it was important for Arsenal to take all 3 points from this fixture to maintain a firm grip at the top, and the Arsenal players did just that and managed to get the 3 points quite comfortably. With a loss at the hands of Arsenal, Hull City currently occupies the 12th spot in the Premier League. Arsenal goes into their next fixture against the high flying Everton with a 4-point gap at the top of their table.