Source: Daily_Mail
Arsenal 3 Hull City 0: Bad blood continues in another x-rated clash
Arsene Wenger claims to have buried the hatchet with Phil Brown, but another feisty encounter between Arsenal and Hull means the animosity between these two unlikely enemies is set to continue.[LNB]A 21-man bout of pushing and shoving sparked by Samir Nasri's off-the-ball stamp on Richard Garcia was the major flashpoint and could yet haunt the Arsenal midfielder.[LNB]Nasri was booked by referee Steve Bennett but should the FA review the video evidence, which showed Nasri scrape his studs down Garcia's ankle before standing on his foot, then a three-match ban for violent conduct is possible.[LNB]Nicky Barmby and Stephen Hunt then clashed with Nasri before Alex Song grabbed the former Reading winger by the throat. [LNB] bad blood: Arsenal's Samir Nasri (centre) is surrounded by Hull City players [LNB] The bad blood continued as the teams headed for the tunnel at half-time, when Barmby again made a beeline for Nasri and harsh words were exchanged between several Arsenal players and Garcia. [LNB]Adding further spice was an earlier altercation between Manuel Almunia and Hunt after the pair chased a loose ball.[LNB]Hull boss Brown said: 'We've had some tough times in the last couple of months but I think we've turned it around and changed people's opinions.'[LNB]For Wenger, Saturday's win may just have breathed life into his title bid. It took a contentious free-kick on the stroke of half-time for Arsenal to break Hull's resolve when Denilson curled the resulting dead-ball beyond Boaz Myhill.[LNB]The reward for Hull's spirited response was a penalty against Mikael Silvestre for a non-existent shirt-pull on Craig Fagan but Almunia saved Geovanni's spot kick.[LNB]The scare encouraged Arsenal to improve and a neat one-two between Diaby and Song resulted in Eduardo extending his side's lead with a neat flick from close range. With 10 minutes remaining, Diaby got the goal he deserved.[LNB]Wenger said: 'It certainly hurt the players when they were criticised after the Chelsea game. When people say it was men against boys then it does hurt, but they kept going, kept fighting, and that's good.'[LNB] ARSENAL
