Arsenal 1-2 Hull: City slickers expose flaw in Arsene Wenger's master plan

Sir Alex Ferguson is often at his most effusive and philosophical in the aftermath of defeat.

Arsene Wenger, not so much.

The Arsenal boss is far too courteous to go into an open sulk but he made little attempt to disguise his feelings after Arsenal's defeat to Hull City on Saturday night.

If he wasn't sulking, he was most definitely brooding.

Straining to stay polite when all he really wanted to do was scream at the walls.

His answers were not monosyllabic but they were clipped. They were not angry but they were tinged with bitterness.

When somebody mentioned that he had once been physically sick with disgust after a defeat when he was a manager in French domestic football, Wenger warmed to the theme.

"Well, there were enough ingredients today to make me physically sick," he said with a thin smile.

It is hard to think of many worse ways to mark the 12th anniversary of Wenger's gilded spell as Arsenal manager.

Because his team didn't just blow their chance of going back to the top of the Premier League. Arsenal's first home defeat since April 2007, and only their second ever at the Emirates, forced their supporters to confront earlier than usual a set of familiar, nagging worries.

All the old doubts resurfaced in the howls of despair and rage raining down from the stands on Theo Walcott, Robin Van Persie and Emmanuel Eboue.

In the screams of frustration, the pleading to shoot rather than play one more sublime, unselfish pass, it was easy to detect the fear that their team, denuded of men like Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb, once more lacks the necessary experience to wrest the title away from Chelsea or Manchester United.

The kids are all right. We know that. We get that message every season. And it was hammered home beautifully and brilliantly by the bunch of prodigies who humiliated Sheffield United in the Carling Cup last week.

Everybody who loves football - except UEFA chief Michel Platini - would love those kids to surge into the Arsenal first team in a couple of years and take the fight to United and Chelsea playing samba football.

Everybody would like to see Denilson, Gael Clichy, Walcott and Cesc Fabregas take the final step towards a concerted challenge for the Premier League and the Champions League.

But even though on their good days they are probably still the best club team in the world to watch, the fear is that there is a flaw in Wenger's grand plan.

It's a flaw that's been pointed out gleefully by more pragmatic managers like Jose Mourinho, managers who have contributed far less to the game than Wenger.

Men like Mourinho build for the short term and then move on. Wenger tries to create something that will last. But that brings us to the flaw.

The flaw in the recent Wenger years is that tomorrow never comes. The present is lit up by the brightest prospects but his unswerving faith in them when they may still be a notch short of full maturity has been enough to cost Arsenal the top honours.

Against a neat, clever, incredibly determined Hull side, that same immaturity betrayed itself in a complacency and a lack of desire that gave the visitors the edge.

Arsenal took the lead after half-time but Hull still sensed their opportunity and hit back with two stunning strikes from Geovanni and Daniel Cousin in quick succession.

On the touchline, Wenger pulsed with frustration. He hurled a drinks container so violently to the turf, it bounced. "When we have an opportunity like we had today to go top of the League, it is important that from the start to have the right level of concentration.

We didn't today, though it is difficult to say if it was down to complacency.

"But when we got 1-0 up, we let the game go again. And that's where we are very guilty."

The other shortcoming that Wenger pinpointed concerned, well, shortness.

"Our centre-backs are not very tall but it's not only centre-backs who defend. I think as a team we are a bit short," he said. Wenger promised some changes for the Champions League tie at home to Porto tomorrow.

Where they will come, he would not say, although speculation centred on the position of the over-emotional William Gallas.

It is way too early to dismiss Arsenal as credible title contenders but they are going to have to grow up fast if they are going to worry Chelsea and United.

YOU THE MANAGER Man Of The Match (Worth an extra two Fantasy League points) Ian Ashbee (HULL) 8 Led his troops brilliantly and never stopped running

VILLAIN OF THE MATCH 6 Emmanuel Adebayor (ARSENAL) Never put his mark on the game and offered very little up-front

Arsenal: Almunia 6, Sagna 6d, Toure 6, Gallas 6d, Clichy 7, Walcott 6 (Vela 77), Denilson 5, Fabregas 7, Eboue 5 (Bendtner 69, 5), Van Persie 6, Adebayor 6. Goal: McShane og 50

Hull City: Myhill 8, McShane 7, Turner 8, Zayatte 7, Dawson 7, Marney 8, Boateng 7 (Garcia 76), Ashbee 8d, Geovanni 7(Hughes 72, 6), Cousin 7(Mendy 80), King 8.

Referee: Alan Wiley Attendance: 60,037. Goals: Geovanni 62, Cousin 66

COMPUTER

ARSENAL v HULL CITY: ARSENAL LET IT SLIP AWAY

BALL POSSESSION

62% 38%

FACE TO FACE

15 Corners 4

4 Offside 10

86% Pass completion 71%

15 Tackles 25%

10 Fouls 10

2 Cards 1

SHOTS

12 off target 2

4 on target 5

ANORAK The average age of Arsenal's line-up at the Emirates on Saturday was 23

NEXT THREE GAMES

ARSENAL Tomorrow: Porto (h) Chmp Lge, Sat: Sunderland (a) Prem, Sat Oct 18: Everton (h) Prem

HULL CITY Sun: Tottenham (a) Prem, Sun Oct 19: West Ham (h) Prem, Sat Oct 25: West Brom (a) Prem

Find out what our resident Premier League fan bloggers think - and let them know your views

Think you can outwit our Football Pools experts John Barnes, Tony Cascarino and Graham Poll? Then have a crack at the Football Pools

Follow every Premier League game live with our brilliant Match Tracker