Arsenal have returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Hull City at the Emirates Stadium.
Alexis Sanchez netted both goals for Arsenal - the first of which came off his hand - but the North Londoners deserve credit for grinding out a win over a Hull team who will feel that they could have come away with a share of the spoils.
Arsenal went into the game having suffered back-to-back defeats to Watford and Chelsea respectively, and while they had the better of the chances in the first half, they found themselves being tested by the visitors.
Moments after Sanchez had fired straight at Eldin Jakupovic when running behind the defence, Oumar Niasse failed to anticipate a fine cross from Lazar Markovic which would have left him with a tap-in.
Niasse then forced an excellent stop out of Petr Cech with a header from eight yards, before Hector Bellerin lashed wide of the near post from 12 yards after playing a neat one-two on the edge of the penalty area.
Sanchez then fired wide from a similar distance after jinking across the box, while Mesut Ozil volleyed wide from by the penalty spot after being found by his Chilean teammate.
Sam Clucas also produced a timely block to prevent Theo Walcott's volley going into the corner, but the Gunners finally broke Hull's resistance when Sanchez bundled the ball into the net with his hand after Andrew Robertson had cleared off the line from Kieran Gibbs.
The Tigers had reason to feel aggrieved with the goal being allowed to stand but the ball hit Sanchez's hand - rather than the attacker moving it towards the ball - and it would have also been considered harsh had his 18th goal of the campaign been ruled out.
At the start of the second half, Hull went back on the offensive, and Markovic and Niasse once again linked up in the final third, but Niasse's volley on the turn was well saved by Cech.
Hull would have still felt hard done by after Sanchez's opener, but they became further frustrated when Gibbs prevented Markovic from a run through on goal, with the referee only deciding to book the left-back rather than reducing Arsenal to 10 men.
After that let-off, Arsenal improved with Alex Iwobi firing over from 20 yards and Walcott shooting tamely at the goalkeeper, but they could not find a way of netting a second goal.
It only encouraged Hull and as the game entered the closing stages, a pin-point cross from Harry Maguire was headed straight at Cech by Markovic.
A better opening fell to substitute Adama Diomande, who headed over the crossbar from eight yards out after jumping above Bellerin, but in the first minute of added-on time, Arsenal made sure of the three points.
After Clucas was dismissed for handling the ball on the line to stop Lucas Perez netting from six yards out, Sanchez stepped up to convert and give his team an important three points in their bid to finish in the top four of the Premier League table.
Darren Plant
