ARSENE Wenger must wish championships were awarded for inner belief and mental strength because, if they were, the Arsenal manager would now be the proud owner of another Premier League title.
Sadly for the Frenchman they aren’t, but this doesn’t mean his five-year wait for more silverware won’t come to an end in May anyway. On this evidence, Arsenal’s remarkable refusal to abandon hope of beating Manchester United and Chelsea in the race for the biggest domestic prize of all continues to show no signs of stopping.
Arsenal’s fifth straight league victory was secured by Nicklas Bendtner’s fourth goal in two games and his side’s fifth in stoppage time in the last four games. Opponents are throwing everything at Arsenal, quite literally, yet Wenger’s men refuse to buckle.
Brave Hull City had been reduced to 10 men before the interval when George Boateng, their irresponsible captain, poked Bendtner in the eye to earn his first booking then promptly hacked down Bacary Sagna with the sort of challenge deserving of a red card in itself and one Wenger continues to have nightmares about.
Yet Hull, who had seen Jimmy Bullard’s first-half penalty cancel out Andrey Arshavin’s 13th-minute opener, defended like their lives depended on it until the dying moments, when goalkeeper Boaz Myhill parried Denilson’s speculative drive straight into the path of Bendtner and he provided the simple finish.
Arsenal might be baring the physical scars of the title race, but Bendtner and Wenger insist the club’s inner spirit remains untouched. Bendtner said: "I always believe right until the last minute that we can do it because I’ve seen it so many times. People think it’s over and then we score a goal out of nothing. We know it’s important to keep going right to the end. The game is 90 minutes and if you give up after 80 minutes, you cannot be a player so we showed great character again, like we did against Stoke. We are going to keep doing this.
"I think we have proved that no matter if people try to beat us down, we are going to come back up. We have done really well and we’re in a great position."
Wenger was in agreement and he said: "When I see them on the pitch, I know they will not give up. These kind of wins strengthen our belief, but it is more a consequence of our spot-on attitude. For such a young team to have that is something special. It comes from the desire to win something.
"This team hasn’t won anything yet. We started to build this team three or four years ago, the age is around 22 and now people are saying, ‘yes, but what did you win?’ That desire to win something is certainly evident.
"We haven’t won anything yet and as long as you have not won anything it will play on your mind. But we have built a good squad with exceptional spirit."
Bendtner called on the authorities to stamp out once and for all the number of dangerous tackles creeping back into the game and admitted Boateng’s lunge at Sagna could have seen a repeat of the horror inflicted on Aaron Ramsey at Stoke last month.
Bendtnar added: "You don’t poke someone in the eye on the pitch when the ref isn’t looking. For me, that’s not fair. I said that to him (Boateng) and he got a bit upset. He took it out on Bacary and rightly got a red card.
"It was a poor challenge. You can see Bacary’s knee and it’s got stud marks up the knee so the referee had no choice.
"It could have been a repeat, but luckily nothing happened.
"I think that’s something the referees have to decide on. I’m not the right one to comment on this. I think the refs have to come together and say ‘what do we do in these incidents when these things happen?’ They must come to a decision."
Hull need fighting spirit to survive but it seems the players are taking manager Phil Brown’s instructions too literally. One win in three months suggests Hull are doomed and the problems are mounting fast. The dressing room remains a fractious place following the fall-out between Bullard and Nick Barmby, while midfielder Tom Cairney had to be left out of the squad following the club’s row with his unlicensed agent over a new contract.
Brown, whose side travel to Portsmouth next weekend, said: "Against the bigger sides, we show that grit and determination. We didn’t unfortunately against Everton last week but Portsmouth is a big test for us. We go there and have to bring that fight and determination to the party.
"But it’s not about one or two individuals, it’s about the team. And they took a lot of pride from this game.
"It was not just about the response today, but the next nine games. There is an awful lot at stake and we have to stand united. We will succeed.
"Tom has unfortunately been taking advice from the wrong people. The people who are in charge of Tom are the right people to listen to. What I mean by that is my chairman, myself and the backroom staff and the players. He has taken advice from an unlicensed and unregistered agent hiding under the umbrella of a solicitor who we have received a letter from saying that we are not allowed to talk to their client. So he was left out. I could not tell him that he had been dropped."
MATCH RATING: *** – Warmed up after a slow start, thanks to Hull’s willingness not to simply throw in the towel once Boateng had rightly earned his second booking.
REFEREE: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) 6 – Might reflect that he should have sent Campbell off in the first-half penalty incident, but he got most things right and played his part in letting the contest flow.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 15, 2010
