Arsène Wenger will offer Phil Brown his hand prior to kick-off at the KC Stadium tomorrow afternoon despite confrontations between Arsenal and Hull City having proved fractious over the last two seasons.
Both clubs were fined by the Football Association in December for failing to control their players as tension boiled over into a 21-man brawl at the Emirates after Samir Nasri appeared to tread on Richard Garcia's ankle. That followed on from last season's fractious FA Cup quarter-final when Brown accused Cesc Fábregas, sidelined with injury at the time, of spitting at his assistant Brian Horton at the end of the game. The Spaniard later admitted he had possibly spat on the ground. The FA found the allegations unproven.
Wenger had refused to shake Brown's hand at the end of that fixture – "He never does," the Hull manager said at the time – though the Frenchman maintains there is no antipathy lingering between the clubs. Asked whether he would shake Brown's hand, Wenger replied: "Yes, of course. We have had tight games and the tension has been higher. That is my only explanation [for the incidents]. I have nothing against Phil Brown. I feel there is respect there.
"We do not focus on bad blood. We just focus on our game and try to play well. In fact, if you look at what happened, there was not a lot. Nobody was injured. There was a little brawl at one stage and we got punished, them as well, but the game itself was not dirty. Hull are fully committed and they play as well as they can."
Arsenal travel to Hull two points from Manchester United at the top of the table having reasserted their challenge in stunning fashion since losing to the top two in successive games at the end of January and beginning of February. Wenger's side has conceded all the points in collisions with those above them this term, with the basis of their challenge built on an ability to capitalise in contests with the also-rans. Only seven points have been shed to clubs in the bottom half of the table, their former vulnerability in meetings with the lesser lights apparently a thing of the past.
That bodes well given the Londoners' run-in, with Arsenal's most daunting remaining fixtures arguably against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, currently fourth and fifth in the table. "We have done exactly the opposite to last year," said Wenger. "We lost against Chelsea and Manchester United because we didn't turn up and, against the rest of the teams, we have been quite consistent. We have lost six games – four against United and Chelsea – so, overall, we have been quite consistent against the other teams. That's why it's important that we continue to achieve that until the end of the season.
"The consistency is down to a bit more maturity. It was important, for example, that we won at Stoke. That we won at places where we used to have big problems. That is a sign that belief is in the team and that we can deal better with the physical side of the game. But we need to perform at our best. Hull are a team that can play very well against anybody and that's everywhere in the Premier League. People say we have easier fixtures than Chelsea and United because they play each other but Chelsea lost at Wigan. So did Liverpool. It is like that in this league."
