By Boris Mellor
March 18 2009
I never criticise managers and I'm not going to change a habit for that weasel.I thought I had been to an enjoyable football match, but when I got home I discovered that people had been murdered; and the referee, old mother Riley. bribed to favour Arsenal. Now I realise how Arsene feels because I hadn't seen any of it. I was genuinely unaware of it until I turned on Sky News.
As I left the stadium thousands of happy Gooners were singing, "off to Wemberlee". I've not seen so many happy Gooners in a long time; obviously these were not the people who had watched the game inside the stadium. According to the press the ones inside were miserable and sullen, perhaps I had been to a different game.
One reporter even managed to claim that Gallas was hated at Arsenal until he scored his goal yesterday. I have never heard any fan boo Gallas, and all the fans I know respect him. What is going on here?
Much ado about nothing
I am not going to waste time criticising Brown, instead just to note that if Wenger had come out with what he came out with last night he would have been denounced as a bad loser. Nor should Arsenal fans believe what the press has come out with. Why would Arsene refuse to shake Brown's hand? He won and he is a gracious winner.
After the match Arsene said he went to the dressing room and Brown wasn't there, but he was prepared to shake his hand. I am prepared to bet £50 nothing will happen to Cesc because nothing happened. Is there any coverage of either alleged incident? I doubt it.
All about Bendtner
Lightening struck twice as Hull went ahead with another freak goal, and Arsenal responded lethargically. The team seemed to make little headway in the first half. The crowd kept faith with the team and only booed Hull for time wasting. Increasingly the team huffed and puffed, but rarely looked like breaking through.
I turned to the callow youth next to me and said what we need is Bendtner, nah wahts he done this season he replied. Well he made the first goal against Blackburn - but mere facts were not going to shift him.
At half time I got a phone call from some friends inviting me to some better seats, so Mark and me moved off to them. Now the crowd were really urging the team on, and the team was really trying but nothing happened. With about 28 minutes to go Wenger brought on Super Nik, and the team became more incisive immediately. RvP has great talent, but he doesn't lead the line, now the team pivoted on Bendtner.
When the equaliser came it was all about Bendtner, yes a great Arshavin screw back, yes a great shot by RvP, but it was the grit and determination of Bendtner in getting round the back of the defence that made the Arshavin pass possible. What I used to like about Adebayor was that he got behind defenders, since his loss of form and subsequent injury we have been missing that. Now with Arshavin and Bendtner that is happening again.
The equaliser left Hull uncertain whether to keep playing for time or not, such indecisiveness put the Gunners on the front foot. The equaliser was going to come sooner or later, considering there was five minutes injury time, at 84 minutes, Gallas's header was not that late. Mark declared they were lucky seats, I hope not I can't carry them to every match.
Ha Ha ha
Was it offside? I couldn't possibly tell, but it is true that the keeper did push it on to Gallas's head. I will leave that one to the experts, but I must say it looked a fine goal. I checked the score this morning and it read 2-1, that will do nicely.

