Reflections on Being Mauled by a Group of Inspired Tigers

The picture says it all—frustration and disappointment at the ridiculous game we played against a newly promoted side. I'd read a preview last week wheresome bloke had mentioned about how we rip apart newly promoted sides and we'd comprehensively win 4-1...the reason for the goal being given saying the defence is frail.

I've been a strong supporter of William Gallas and have stayed away completely from throwing abuse and negative remarks at him for the sole reason that he's really passionate about what he does...but NOW I FEEL LET DOWN...the complacent manner in which the corners were handled (oh,that was part of their plan to win at least five or six corners and free kicks in each half) was not the type of defending that would win you titles.

If you look at Man Utd and Chelsea, the other teams will get scared looking at the team sheet which boasts of names like Ferdinand, Vidic, Terry and Carvalho. We've all the technical qualities to be better than them and an excellent training facility also but what we lack is COMPOSURE, CONCENTRATION, and COMMITMENT on the match days.

Coming to the match, first of all full credit to Phil Brown and his men for coming with a set plan, showing lot of passion and playing percentage football as per their plan to stifle and gun down the men from the Emirates.

The manner in which they carried out their gameplan was completely incredible and their recovery from a one-goal deficit to come back and win the game at the "fortress" shows the grit and the quality they have to survive in the premiership.

My previous article highlighted the good qualities of Wenger but now I feel he's being too partial. lLast season,when Lehmann made two blunders that cost us a total of four points, he was made to warm the bench for the rest of the season. If you ask me, I feel Gallas and Robin Van Persie deserve the same.

Geovanni was simply brilliant with his first goal and their second goal was, I feel, due to meticulous planning and unbelievably bad defending from our team. The first goal could've possibly been avoided if there was someone who'd shown the commitment to close down on Geovanni when he got the space—frankly I wish Diarra had been there with us after watching his game against tottenham, he was running everywhere.

The game started off in usual style with our boys trying to get their touch and their bearings right. I felt Denilson started off brightly when he tracked back the entire length of the pitch to prevent one of their counter-attacks, but later on he faded into oblivion.

Hull were playing with lots of inspiration and they were superbly using the "doubling" technique to snuff out all our attacks—they really did well to ensure Fabregas would not get into his normal groove.

The first half was really a bland and dull affair with Hull City without doubt the better team, there was a really good chance for Eboue with an open post but, unsurprisingly, he chose to pass—to the defender of the opposing team.

The anger on Wenger's face was very evident.

I felt a goal would come in the second half and it did. All credit to Theo Walcott who just dazzled with his pace, I strongly felt we should've passed the ball more to him and not let Sagna send crosses one after the other to our strikers who were well marked

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