On October 18th, Hull City travel to the Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal in an FA Cup final rematch. The last time these two sides met it was in May at Wembley Stadium. This time they are once again in London, but at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium instead of Wembley. This time around they are fighting for three points as opposed to the FA Cup. Early in the season, both teams are hovering around mid table with Arsenal on 10 points and Hull on nine. This is a game Arsenal need to win to start rising back up the table, but Hull will think it’s possible to get something from this games with all of Arsenal’s injuries.
Team News
Both teams have injuries to first teamers to contend with heading into this match. Hull will continue to miss summer signing Robert Snodgrass as he recovers from his dislocated kneecap. Starting goalkeeper Alan McGregor will miss out with a shoulder injury. Ahmed Elmohamady is questionable for the match as he continues to deal with back spasms.
As mentioned above, Arsenal have a lot of injuries to contend with. The gunners have to contend with long term injuries to Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, and Mesut Ozil. Despite returning to full training Theo Walcott and Serge Gnabry are both reported to be at least a week away from a return as are Aaron Ramsey, Yaya Sanogo, Laurent Koscielny and David Ospina. Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky are due to return to the squad but may not be fit to play. On the bright side, Danny Welbeck should be fit, despite limping off for England against Estonia midweek.
Interesting Statistics
These two clubs have faced off 14 times in their history. Arsenal have dominated the match up historically, winning 11 of the 14 matches. The teams have met in the Premier League six times with Hull winning the first Premier League meeting and Arsenal winning the last five. Of the seven matches between these two at Arsenal, Hull have gotten a result twice. Hull were victorious on their first trip to the Emirates Stadium, but have lost their two league matches there without scoring a goal.
Key Men
Arsenal
With all the injuries Arsenal have had to contend with this season, the players that are fit have to step up. Jack Wilshere has managed to stay fit so far and has stepped his performances up. The 22 year old has put in some fantastic performances for both club and country over the last month and a half. He was superb against Estonia midweek dictating the flow of the game as well as picking out some delicious balls that Wayne Rooney probably should have finished. Wilshere will need continue his good performances to try to replace the injured Aaron Ramsey. The gunners have an easier run of games coming up, but they still need to put in the performances and Wilshere keeping up his good form could be vital to them picking up points in those matches.
Hull
Arsenal have not been shut out at home since mid February against Bayern Munich. That means Hull are almost certain to need a goal if they are to even get a point out of this match. Abel Hernandez is the man they paid big money to get them goals and he will need to step up to the challenge on Saturday. Hull paid £10m for the Uruguayan this summer to replace Shane Long. So far he has done well scoring two goals in his first four matches. Hernandez has scored with 22% of his shots and has hit the target on 71% of them. The former Palermo man will be hoping he can bag a memorable goal at the Emirates Stadium to help Hull try to get something from this match.
TailorBet
After a hat trick in his last game at the Emirates, back Danny Welbeck to score at 2.05 with Tailorbet: http://goo.gl/gd5OyL. Create your own bets for this or any other Premier League game with Tailorbet!
Prediction
It’s no secret that Arsenal are big favorites to get the three points at home to Hull. Hull did well to stay in the Premier League and get to the FA Cup final last season, but they did it mostly by beating the teams around them as opposed to beating the bigger teams. After a tough start to the season, Arsenal know they need to pick up points now when they play the teams that will be in the relegation race as opposed to the title race. Surprises can always happen in football, but I’m going to go with an Arsenal win.
