ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Hull City 1 Arsenal 2:NONE OF the punches thrown by Nicky Barmby and Jimmy Bullard as the pair fought by the Humber Bridge was as well timed as the blow to Hull's solar plexus delivered by Nicklas Bendtner.

For the sixth time in five matches Arsenal scored in stoppage time, and if they are to astonish perhaps even themselves by winning the title, their template will be the one fashioned by Manchester United.

It is not just about the late goals, which have long been a trademark of Alex Ferguson’s sides, but the realisation that as long as you beat enough teams, it doesn’t really matter who they are. Ten months ago Manchester United were acclaimed as the best club in England after winning the title despite the fact they had won only one of six games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Now, if they can keep their nerve in their final eight fixtures, an Arsenal side who have lost home and away to their nearest challengers could repeat that feat.

The way their players gathered in front of those who had journeyed from London to make a present of their shirts suggested they thought this was a pivotal moment.

However, when asked about a run-in that someone called “comfortable”, manager Arsene Wenger raised a sardonic eyebrow and said: “You saw the ‘comfort’ we had out there. These kind of wins strengthen our belief, but I think it is more a consequence of our spot-on attitude. It comes from the desire to win something. This team hasn’t won anything yet: we started to build it three or four years ago and now people are saying, ‘Yes, but what did you win?’

“As long as you have not won anything it will play on your mind. But we have lost the spine of our team (William Gallas, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie) and we can still turn up and win games.”

Wenger was asked whether, after the crushing defeats handed out by Manchester United and Chelsea six weeks ago, he had really kept believing.

“I knew that I would not give up and I knew that they (the players) would not give up,” he said. “But, at some stage, we needed results to start going for us and you could not have predicted that, frankly. The rest of the season will be tight, interesting and exciting, and that is all you need when you work in newspapers.”

The newspapers on Humberside and beyond had been full of the fight between Barmby and Bullard which was carried out in full view of members of the Women’s Institute as they walked across the Humber Bridge. Following a rout at Everton the previous Sunday, team-mates brawling with each other was taken as a sign Phil Brown’s side were falling apart.

It was, however, not too much of a surprise that Hull should have fought Arsenal to a standstill despite playing for more than 50 minutes with 10 men, after George Boateng, already booked for clashing off the ball with Bendtner, launched himself at Arsenal’s right-back Bacary Sagna.

Brown had been at the Emirates on Tuesday evening and confessed to being awed by the quality of Arsenal’s play against Porto in the Champions League, which for the first 20 minutes of this game they repeated. The flats on the skyline had started to glow pink in the sunset when Andrey Arshavin danced through Hull’s defence to score a delightful opening goal.

The stadium prepared itself for the kind of rout Goodison Park had witnessed but it never came. Had Sol Campbell been dismissed for the foul on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink that conceded the equalising penalty, it is debatable whether Arsenal would have handled the situation as coolly and intelligently as did the side fighting for their lives.

Guardian Service

Bendtner points out Boateng's errors

NICKLAS BENDTNER said George Boateng’s first yellow card came as a direct result of him squaring up to the Hull captain after being poked in the eye (pictured).

“You don’t poke someone in the eye on the pitch when the ref isn’t looking,” the striker said.

“For me, that’s not fair. I said that to him and he got a bit upset. He took it out on Bac (Sagna) and rightly got a red card, and from then on the game settled down.

“Most of the challenges were fair, except that one. It was a poor challenge.

“ You can see Bac’s knee and it’s got stud marks all along it, so the referee had no choice.”