Hull v Arsenal – the great Hull / Arsenal competition, and an Untold wedding

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

This is part two of our preview – for the team and the earlier bits please click here.

Hull City caretaker manager Mike Phelan has not got too carried away with his opening results, saying, “There is a bit of belief now and hopefully we can cement our place outside the bottom area of the league.

“If you get in that area it can be difficult, so we have to be in the frame of mind that we can go to the next level.  Arsenal are a fabulous team with a certain way of playing football and they challenge you all of the time in different areas of the field.

“We’ve conducted ourselves really well so far and we’ll be up for this challenge.”

So far Hull have indeed conducted themselves well, having beaten Leicester and Swansea in the league, and beaten Exeter in the League Cup.  After that they lost 0-1 to Man U and drew with Burnley.

Thus they are capable of playing well – but they are still a club in chaos, and although willpower and determination can see them through, everyone will have seen that opening day victory over Leicester, and realised you don’t just have to turn up to beat Hull.

As BBC Sport points out, it is 101 years since Hull’s only home league win over Arsenal.  But as we all remember they did turn us over in September 2008.

Thus the head to head is rather dull and repetitive – Hull have only taken only taken one point from seven Premier League games against Arsenal since beating us on that date.   Which leads to the almighty factoid that Arsenal could become the first away side to win six competitive matches at Hull’s KCOM Stadium.

But they will be geared up even beyond the knowledge of his long run of no victories at home.  We’ve played them three years running in the FA Cup and (eventually) won each time.    However this is not a match that necessarily grabs attention.  On 4 January 2015  Arsenal’s lowest home attendance of the season – 59,439 – came to see the two finalists of the FA Cup in 2013/14 start off their FA Cup journeys again.  It ended Arsenal 2 Hull 0.  Mertesacker and Alexis scored.

So I’ve given you loads of clues, and now I present the competition.

Here’s some other Hull / Arsenal event dates.  Have you got even the slightest idea what each event was?   Don’t worry if not, because the answers are below, so you can cheat as much as you like.

  • 11 January 1908:
  • 16 January 1908:
  • 2 April 1915: 
  • 22 March 1930: 
  • 26 March 1930: 
  • 26 June 1970: 
  • 27 September 2008: 
  • 26 December 2008: 
  • 17 March 2009: 
  • 22 May 2009: 
  • 13 March 2010: 
  • 15 March 2010: 
  • 18 October 2010:
  • 19 August 2011: 
  • 25 March 2013: 
  • 20 April 2014: 
  • 17 May 2014:
  • 4 August 2015: 

Back to reality

Arsenal are undefeated in 13 of their last 14 matches in the Premier League.

Hull’s tally seven points from four equals their best start after four games of a top-flight season, first set in 2008-09.   They are also the first Premier League team to have an unchanged line-up for the opening four games since Newcastle in 2010.

However their last three games have all been goalless at half-time and featured a goal in the 90th minute or later.    However however Arsenal have been winning at both half time and full time in their last three away games against Hull.

And they have faced 78 attempts on their goal, more than any other club in the division.

Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 25 Premier League games against newly-promoted sides since a defeat at QPR in March 2012 (W21, D4).

Also, it is interesting to note that Arsenal have had three PL penalties this season, one more than they did in the whole of last season.   WHAT IS GOING ON?

And also also Alexis Sanchez has scored four times in as many games against Hull while Arsenal have scored at least 2 goals in 11 of their last 12 matches against Hull.

The quiz answers

11 January 1908: Arsenal v Hull City (FA Cup 1st round).  It was a 0-0 draw in front of 15,000 and Hull won the replay 4-1.

16 January 1908: Hull City 4 Woolwich Arsenal 1 (FA Cup 1st round replay).  Two years of reaching the semi-finals, Arsenal slipped out at the first attempt – an event which started the financial crisis of 1910.  This was also the last game for William Garbutt – the Arsenal man who took football to Italy, winning the league there three times and doing the same in Spain.

2 April 1915: Hull 1 Arsenal 0.  Last game for George Grant.  Born in Plumstead he came from Invicta in Dartford and moved on to Millwall.

22 March 1930: Hull City 2 Arsenal 2.  FA Cup semi final.  Jack and Bastin got Arsenal’s goals.  47549 turned up for the game played at Leeds’ Elland Road ground.

26 March 1930: Hull City 0 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup semi final replay.  David Jack scored the goal at Villa Park which took Arsenal to their second final and ultimately their first major trophy.

26 June 1970: Terry Neill joined Hull as player manager.  He was at the 2014 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Hull as a man with connections with both sides and gave a half-time interview pitchside which he hopefully subsequently regretted.

27 September 2008: After three wins in which Arsenal had scored a total of ten goals, Arsenal were unbelievably beaten 1-2 by Hull in their second defeat in the Emirates.  The Arsenal goal came from McShane who turned it into his own net.

26 December 2008: Phil Brown of Hull (later to accuse Arsenal of Fabregas of spitting and wearing inappropriate clothes while not in the team) showed an early version of his eccentricity by holding his half time team talk on the pitch.  It was widely condemned in the media

17 March 2009: Arsenal 2 Hull 1 FA Cup 6th round.  Hull made their wild allegations about assault and of Fabregas being wrongly dressed, after the game.  All allegations were thrown out and the Hull manager later lost his job.

22 May 2009: After Hull accused Fabregas of spitting, being improperly dressed, illegally entering the field of play after the match was over, and Arsène Wenger of not shaking hands, Arsenal were cleared on all counts at a hearing.

13 March 2010: Hull 1 Arsenal 2 turned out to be last game for Hull’s manager Phil Brown who had launched bizarre attacks on Arsenal and Cesc Fabregas for various degrees of imagined misbehaviour.

15 March 2010: Phil Brown, the man who accused Arsenal of a wide range of fiendish maneuvers and impropriety such as having a non-playing captain improperly dressed, was dismissed by Hull City.  He later managed Southend.

18 October 2010: Vito Mannone loaned to Hull for the season.  His loan was then continued until 2013, at which stage he left Hull having played 31 times for the club

19 August 2011: Jay Simpson sold to Hull City.  He never played for Arsenal but had successful loan spells with Millwall, WBA and QPR.

25 March 2013: After his numerous allegations against Arsenal, Phil Brown who had earlier been sacked by Hull on this day became manager of Southend.  He was part of the BT Sport team for the Hull Arsenal cup game in March 2016, where he was highly complimentary of Arsene Wenger and Arsenal in general.

20 April 2014: In a match delayed by advertising hoardings blowing across the pitch, Ramsey and Özil returned after long lay-offs as Arsenal easily beat Hull away, proving if it needed proving, how important these two players were. Ramsey scored and Podolski got two.

17 May 2014: FA Cup Final – Arsenal v Hull.  Arsenal equaled the all time record for most final appearances, and Arsène Wenger made it five cup wins with Arsenal.  Hull took a 2-0 lead but Arsenal fought back to 3-2 with Ramsey scoring the winner.  See also the hour by hour blog of the day.

4 August 2015: Chuba Akpom loaned to Hull City for the season.  He played 35 times and scored three goals to help Hull to a play off place, having come fourth in the league.

 

A PS from Tony concerning a very special event

“Blacksheep” (not his real name) who writes occasionally for Untold, and behind the scenes helps enormously with the research projects (such as the series through the summer on the perception of Arsenal, how we might develop our dedication to evidence based football analysis), is getting married.

And he is not just getting married, he is getting married today, not too far from the Arsenal.  Indeed not too far from the boating lake where my father took me each Sunday morning as a child (whether permitting), which is a nice remembrance for me.  What’s more I am told the feast following the wedding has a certain Arsenal theme.  Good man!

So I’m off to London, and won’t be back until whenever I recover on Sunday.   However Walter has reported back in following his holiday – although it is asking rather a lot of him immediately to jump into doing all his normal post-match reporting stuff on day one of his return.  Thus there may, or indeed may not, be more from Untold between now and sometimes on Sunday afternoon, whereupon I will attempt to write something.

I’m certain you will want me to convey to Blacksheep all our best wishes for today, and ever more.

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58 Replies to “Hull v Arsenal – the great Hull / Arsenal competition, and an Untold wedding”

  1. That would be Finsbury Park boating lake i guess..I remember playing for my primary school team on the cinder pitch which had lumps of coke poking its head through the top layer. Anyone remember train spotting on the purpose built ramp/. Happy days

  4. Congratulations Blacksheep – if any lambs ensue we all hope they will be brought up in the right traditions. (Will ewe take this man…)

  5. Congratulations Blacksheep, and best wishes for the future.
    And don’t forget the words of Ogden Nash…..

    To keep your marriage brimming,
    With love in the loving cup,
    Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
    Whenever you’re right, shut up.

  7. @Blacksheep,
    Best wishes for a joyous day and a long and happy marriage, which, after 68 years of it, I strongly recommend! 😉

  8. I wish our Blacksheep a successful merry weeding day and happy marital live. And I also wish you Oga Tony a good get together day at the weeding party and a save journey back home.

    Before I say it, I believe Arsenal have already known that they have to beat Hull City in today’s afternoon match at the KCOM stadium so as to remain in contention for the title in this early days of the campaign. Diego Costa fluffed his lines yesterday at the Bridge after he earlier gave Chelsea a hope to at least salvage a point from their match against Liverpool as he scored a goal to cut Liverpool’s lead in the game to 1-2. A win for us today against Mike Phelan’s stubborn Hull side will see us level on points with Liverpool and Chelsea on the Log. This is important and that’s what am after.

    If needs be, the Gunners should not only carry along their high caliber double barrel rifle fully loaded and made ready to discharge ammunition at instance notice, but they should as well put on their full body gear amour to resist any penetration of biting and fingers pawing from and unruly Tiger during the battle for the 3 points which are going to put at stake at the KCOM Stadium at Hull. They should try by all lawful means to make sure they at least tamed and caged 3 hefty Tigers during this battle and should endeavour to bring them all to the Ems’ exhibition room for we the Gooners to behold the spoils.

  10. Congratulations to you Blacksheep, and of course to the future Mrs Blacksheep.

    If it’s correct what they say that ‘couples that laugh together stay together’ you should enjoy a very long and a very happy life together.

    And it’s with that in mind at 3 O’clock I shall raise a glass to you both.

    Have a fantastic day.

  11. All the best Blacksheep. Let’s hope the team up in Hull ensure the toasts are extra special today.

  13. Congratulations Blacksheep to you and your wife to be – may you have a great day and hope the baa doesn’t run dry !

  15. Congratulations Blacksheep! I hope you have a wonderful wedding day and wish you a lifetime of happiness!

  16. Congratulations, Blacksheep, all the best for the new married couple! 🙂

    This may come handy to you one day: when people ask me how my marriage is working, I reply: “I’m happy but I don’t know about her!” 🙂

  19. Le Prof’s starts for Hull game revealed I’ve missed them by 2. He has started Coquelin and benched my preferred to start Xhaka and also started Walcott ahead of my to start Perez. And I don’t have Elneny on my bench for this match. But Le Prof has him on his. It’s not surprising to see Giroud who I had on my bench dropped because Le Prof has hinted he has a toe injury.

    I am not the manager, Le Prof is. Therefore I respect his starts and bench for this match and I think these Gunners who are starting this match and being backed up by their bench should be able to tame and caged 3 hefty Tigers during the match and bring them back to the Ems as their game spoils.

    Dstv has to my surprise not elisted the Hull City vs Arsenal match to be shown live on my Dstv Compact HD Decoder which am paying #6000.00 (six thousand naira) as monthly subscription for. But rather they are showing the free to view Man City vs Bournemouth match. This match is also showing live on my gotv that I gave my Son when I bought the Dstv HD compact decoder. What am I paying #6000:00 monthly subscription for, for God’s sake? This is a big duped by Dstv. If they repeat this duping again, I will not pay the subscription anymore. I rather revert to Startimes decorder.

  24. From the PL games update on my TV screen, I saw Iwobi hitting a power shot on the ball that broke to him but his shot has appeared to have came off Sanchez as it sailed past the Hull’s keeper. Who will the goal be given to as Iwobi has celebrated? And the TV commentators are saying Arsenal are in command of the match but are accusing them of being wasteful with their chances.

  26. Haha gotta love the Hull fans singing “same old Arsenal, always cheating” after their player gets sent off for deliberate handball.

    Seriously though, Cazorla should really be on penalties permanently.

  27. Nobody watching?

    Arsenal have a one-nil lead, an extra-man on the pitch and another penalty missed.

    We should have been a few goals ahead but I’ll take this.

  28. Is Cazorla not in this game anymore? I wouldn’t know since am not watching the match live. The TV update of the Hull vs Arsenal match that I’ve watched has shown Sanchez missing a Pen for Arsenal as he weakly shoot the Pen to the right hand side of the Hull’s keeper to save his weak shot. Are Arsenal wasteful?

  29. ARSENAL missed a penalty!!! Oink!!!!!!

    We’ve got 4 penalties already!!

    More than double last season!!!!…someone dint get the memo??

  30. Cazorla gets a yellow for a foul?

    Alexis has a penalty saved? I suppose we should be happy the ref dismissed a Hull player for a dismissable offence in the first half?

    COYG!

  31. Cazorla got a yellow card for a foul and made two verbal interactions with the referee afterwards. He should be either replaced by Elneny/Xhaka or more careful in the second half.

    And, Jack Wilshere made a foul after which De Bruyne scored from the free-kick.

  32. Cazorla was cautioned by East at the beginning of the second half. Maybe it’s time for an early change?

  38. It sounds like Iwobi is having a wonderful game. Anyone else want to get a pass from Iwobi in the box?

    COYG!

  41. They’ve taken light in my locality in Zaria. But I won’t put on my generator to continue watching the Man City vs Bournemouth match. Because Dstv are not showing the Hull vs Arsenal match on channel 11 which is dedicated for showing top Premier League games on Dstv HD compact decoder which I have and is active. Can one imagin how Dstv have duped us today who have this decoder as they are showing the same Man City vs Bournemouth match on their PL free match channel supersport selec2 and again on supersport select11 which they say they have dedicated for showing a top PL match different from the one showing on their supersport select2?

  51. Hahaha @vinnie posada.

    That was one of the 3 posts of mine that dint end up at moderators desk today. Hahahahah.

  52. Should the Gunners have walloped 10 man Hull City 0-6 in this match if Le Prof had started Xhaka alongside Cazorla and Perez for Walcott who has justified Le Prof’s trust in him to start him for this match? Would Arsenal have been more scary to play against for Hull City?

    Thank God! Arsenal have collected all 3 points at stake in this match and Sanchez has redeem his early Pen miss by scoring his 2nd goal in the match and Xhaka has also justified our glamouring for him to be started in some Arsenal games as he came off the bench past the hour mark to score a goal at the dead. His 1st for Arsenal.

  53. I wish you and your bride a beautiful wedding, a long happy married life and an Arsenal victory (4-1) is now in the bag! we want photos on your next post, ideally of the honeymoon but the wedding will do!

  56. Belated Best Wedding Wishes to Blacksheep and his Mrs . May all your problems be just ‘little ones’ !
    Cheers !

  57. And some advice ……never underestimate the power of three things –
    1. Wife angry for a reason .
    2. Wife angry without reason .
    3. Wife about to get angry and looking for a reason !

  58. Thanks Tony and all the untolders for your messages, we’re heading for Italy (and so Tim is occupying my seat for Chelski and Basel – shout loudly!)

    It’s a privilege to be a part of this site and sorry I’ve not contributed much in the way of articles recently, life’s been a bit busy. I do of course give Tony all his best ideas ??

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