Arsenal are six points clear at the top of the Premier League as of this weekend, sitting on 27 points from 10 games, a record that matches their best start under Mikel Arteta. None of that should stop anyone asking why it took a goalkeeping spill and a deflection to beat a team that hadn't won a Premier League game in eight attempts coming in.
Martin Ødegaard got the goal in the 72nd minute, pouncing after Hull's goalkeeper spilled a Noni Madueke effort, with the Norwegian getting a final touch that took a deflection off a Hull defender on its way in. That's the honest version of how Arsenal broke down a side that managed only a handful of attempts and barely registered on the expected-goals chart all match. It's an attack that needed a lucky bounce to do what it should have done inside the first half hour.
Winning is winning, and a team with that points total and goal difference through ten games doesn't need to apologize for the scoreline. If Arsenal go on to win the title by ten points, nobody will remember that Hull gave them a fright. Title races hinge on what happens when a stronger side parks the same low block and the attack still can't find a second or third goal. Beating the bottom of the table doesn't settle that question. Hull had little going forward, and Arsenal still couldn't put them away until the closing stages.
Madueke is the one player who actually looks dangerous doing it. He forced the save that led to the goal, and late on he was played clean through by a Mikel Merino backheel and should have made it two, only to waste the chance. He's been the most threatening attacker in recent weeks and deserves more credit for carrying the team's cutting edge while others stand around it. Kai Havertz scored the only goal that beat Liverpool at Anfield, snapping a long losing run there, and deserves real credit for that moment. But one match-winning strike doesn't erase the pattern of an attack that keeps needing exactly one goal to win, over and over, against teams it should be beating with room to spare.
Arteta's defense has been excellent, conceding next to nothing through this run, and that part of the operation is working. The problem sits further up the pitch, where a group of attacking players good enough to be chasing the title are still relying on deflections, goalkeeping errors and one moment of brilliance a week to get the job done. That's a system and selection question, and it belongs to Arteta. Keep winning 1-0 against the division's strugglers and Arsenal will stay top through the spring. Keep doing it against everyone else and the title goes to a team that actually finishes its chances.
