Odegaard fires Arsenal six points clear with narrow win over Hull City

Martin Odegaard scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Hull City at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, extending Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League standings to six points.

The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system, contested by 20 clubs who each play 38 matches in a season running from August to May.

Hull City Association Football Club, based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, competes in this top tier and plays its home games at the MKM Stadium.

Arsenal moved to 27 points from 10 matches, six ahead of second-placed Manchester City, which was scheduled to face Nottingham Forest later on Saturday.

The victory was Arsenal's sixth league win by a single-goal margin this season as the club continues its Premier League title defence under manager Mikel Arteta.

Odegaard, who had not scored since September, broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute when he reacted quickest to a rebound after Hull goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis saved Noni Madueke's effort.

Despite dominating possession, Arsenal found it difficult to create clear opportunities against a disciplined Hull defence that remained organised throughout the contest. Kai Havertz wasted a one-on-one chance, and Hull went close to an opener when Elliot Stroud forced a fine save from David Raya.

Arsenal were also controversially denied a penalty following a VAR check when Havertz was adjudged to have been offside as his shirt was pulled by Nobel Mendy near the end of the first period.

According to Premier League rules, however, the foul by Mendy should have taken precedence as Havertz was not "attempting to play the ball, or challenging for the ball" as he made his run, meaning the penalty should have been awarded.

Arteta said "we had some big moments that we should have scored and we didn't hit the target, get the final pass", and praised the players for the way they go about every game.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Fulham and Newcastle United played out a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage, with Jacob Murphy giving the hosts a lead before Rodrigo Muniz equalised.

Tottenham Hotspur's recent revival came to a halt as they went down 1-0 at Leeds United, where Noah Okafor struck the winner 97 seconds after coming off the bench and drove home a low shot in the 79th minute.

That result ended Leeds' five-match winless league run and moved them above Tottenham into eighth place with 14 points, while Tottenham have 12 points. Tottenham were seeking a fourth successive win but faded against Leeds.

There was controversy when Leeds' Jayden Bogle escaped a red card for a dangerous tackle on Mathys Tel, Tel was forced off with an ankle injury, and the VAR check on the challenge taking four minutes.

Visiting manager Roberto de Zerbi said "I'm sorry for the result, but first of all I'm sorry for the performance in the second half... We didn't play like a top team, we played without the right spirit, the right character, the right physicality in the duels".

Sources

• Sportstar

• Hindustan Times

• Photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)