Evening all. So, Arsenal can go top of the table if they beat Hull by a landslide. There are two schools of thought on whether that's possible. There's the theory that Hull are exactly the sort of side Arsenal will swat aside with the minimum of fuss. They'll pass their way through the home side's huff and puff and, with confidence riding high at the London club currently, will easily win.

Or there's the other, much-posited theory, that Arsenal aren't much good against physical sides blah blah blah. Hull have been very strong at the KC Stadium this year and, since mid-September, they have only lost to Manchester United there, while both Chelsea and Manchester City left there licking their wounds. Cesc Fábregas is out, there are injury doubts for others, and Jimmy Bullard is back for Hull to torment what looks like a less-than-secure defence.

Right, that's the football out the way. What, really, provides the chief interest in this game is the needle. Ooh, these two sides don't like each other … and, in Hull City's case, even their own players don't much like each other if the Bullard-Barmby contretemps is anything to go by. There's also been spit-gate and the ever-rumbling the Brown-Wenger aggro - which Wenger says he'll put to bed with a handshake.

A big old, handbags-ahoy, arms a-flailing, windmilling-like-Pete-Townshend bust-up is the ultimate aim, clearly, but even a bit of see-you-Jimmy, chest-pokey would be nice. Let's not pretend we're purists, eh?

Team news:

Hull: Myhill, Mendy, Zayatte, Mouyokolo, Dawson, Fagan, Boateng, Bullard, Marney, Vennegoor of Hesselink, Altidore.
Subs: Duke, Barmby, Garcia, Kilbane, Zaki, Cooper, Olofinjana.

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy, Denilson, Diaby, Eboue, Nasri, Arshavin, Bendtner.
Subs: Fabianski, Eduardo, Walcott, Silvestre, Traore, Merida, Eastmond.

Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands)

Phil Brown's been on the telly outlining Hull City's gameplan. To boil it down, it does not involve free-flowing football. What it does involve is a lot of hoofing - ostensibly of the ball, but probably of Arsenal's players too. Good stuff on the naughtiness front, not so good on the football front.

And here's Wenger: He's already had a pop at the pitch, says he expects a physical game, has another pop at the pitch, and then says his team are "up for it" in much the manner of the chess club captain saying "he's up for" Big Billy Fist who he'll shortly meet behind the bike shed.

An email to entertain you as the team's line up in the tunnel. "So I'm watching the game on Fox Sports, and they've just displayed the formation layout. Couldn't have got it more wrong. Eboue at centre back, Sagna centre mid, Bentdner left wing and Nasri up front. Do they know something we don't, or is it another example of Yanks 'just not getting it?'" emails Amir Adhamy, before signing off with a kiss, which is always welcome.

Here we go: Arsenal are in red, Hull are in orange, the fashion police are in a rage. Wenger went and stood quite a long way away from Phil Brown, incidentally, and made him walk all the way over for the briefest of brief handshakes. Fight is on.

2 min: There are lines all over the pitch from the recent rugby league game, bare patches and bobbles everywhere. The players don't seem to mind as Diaby sends a ball through the middle for Bendtner to run onto. He doesn't though, he lets it go straight past him for a goal kick.

4 min: Bendtner uses his whopping great (metaphorical) head to whomp a header stright up into the air. He does better a moment later when he flicks on a free kick for Nasri to run onto into the box. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, Hull get it back, shift up the other end and then Altidor leaves Campbell standing to dribble a shot wide, slow and bobbling past the left post.

5 min: There's a record crowd at the KC Stadium apparently. Perhaps the WI are in. If so, they're watching Arsenal play a series of short passes outside the Hull box, before Jimmy Bullard nips in and does something agricultural with the ball.

6 min: "Not sure what Amir Adhamy is talking about, but I'm watching the match on Fox Soccer Channel, the provider of the match in the US, and Arsenal's formation was exactly as it should be. Perhaps he's tuning into some other Fox feed, which of course would lead one to comment upon the Aussies understanding of the beautiful game, as opposed to our Yanks. I get it though, it's a supposedly easy target; I'd prefer he shut his trap though," replies Nic from the US of A. He/she also raises Amir's one kiss with the far more appealing "kisses".

8 min: Bullard lofts a long ball into the area, which Vennegoor Of Hesselink (whose name isn't going to be tiresome to type all night at all) runs onto, probably from a slightly offside position over Campbell's shoulder. He can't quite do what he wanted with the ball, though.

9 min: "There's only one Aaron Ramsey," the Arsenal fans are chanting and, after a very brief check on Google, it appears they might be right.

11 min: In the first 10 minutes, it seems that Hull's tactics are this: pass it to Jimmy Bullard. Wait for Bullard to ping it into the area. Hope for the best.

12 min: A variation on a theme: Dawson pings it into the box this time. Altidore tries to knock it down to V of H, but Campbell sticks his zimmer in and the ball is cleared.

GOAL! Hull City 0-1 Arsenal (Arshavin, 14 min) A really nice piece of skill from Arshavin. Arsenal swept up the pitch and found Bendtner in an acre of space outside the area. He shipped it on to Arshavin who took on two Hull defenders, flipped it between the two of them, perhaps dazzling them with his day-glo yellow boots, then slipped it into the bottom corner. That was simple, clinical and will no doubt mean he gets biffed by a Hull defender next time he comes near them.

15 min: "Hull's tactics‏: you gotta go with what you got," emails Tony Hopkins.

18 min: Arshavin pings the ball up the left but fails to realise there is no-one up there. Hull bring it back but Boateng loses it, allowing Nasri to have a run at the Hull defence. He loses it and it goes back up the other end. To sum that up: they would all have been better standing on the spot getting their puff back rather than muck about with all that nonsense.

19 min: There is more than one Aaron Ramsey, as Patrick Cullen has pointed out. Now, can someone just alert Arsenal's travelling support, ta.

21 min: Sagna gets to the byline(ish) then drives a low cross across the goal. Myhill misses it but Mendy knocks it behind. The look on his face afterwards (one of, phew, bloody hell that was close etc) tells you just how near to an own-goal it was. The corner amounts to zip.

24 min: Bullard lifts a free kick into the box from about 10 miles out. Sol Campbell glances it behind, then turns around with much the same sort of look as a pensioner waking up in the day room and being momentarily confused that it is no longer the war. From the corner it falls to Bullard again and, picking up on Campbell's war motif, he launches it skywards in the manner of an Ack Ack gun.

25 min: Nasri sends in a free-kick from wide on the right, it curls towards the back of the box, where it finds Bendtner who heads gently wide. Myhill claims and puts the hoof on it. Now then, here's an email that will upset some people. Scott W takes the credit: "Whatever happens in the title/relegation run-in, the 2009/10 season will surely be remembered as the season Arsene Wenger took Alex Ferguson's Most Obnoxious Manager Award off him, and Arsenal's supporters broke the Liverpool supporters' monopoly on the Most Tedious On-Line Presence Award."

26 min: Another free-kick, this one falls to Hull about 40 yards out on the left of the pitch. Bullard, again, lines it up, takes a second, rushes in ... then drives it straight into the wall.

PENALTY! V of H is a mile offside and runs onto a ball played over his shoulder. Sol Campbell sort of half falls on him and the ref gives the penalty.

GOAL! Hull City 1-1 Arsenal (Bullard, 28 min, pen) Jimmy Bullard lashes it into the top left corner and Almunia had no chance. V of H should have been flagged as being offside and Campbell's challenge was the challenge of a clumsy old man reaching for his dropped specs, but that was a bit soft. Completely against the run of play too.

32 min: A free-kick allows Arsenal to impose a bit more control on the game and, from it, Sagna floats the ball over to the far post. Bendtner, under close attention from Mendy, can't get enough of his giant ego-inflated head onto it.

33 min: "Patrick Cullen's riposte to Arsenal's support has left them, rather appropriately, without a leg to stand on," chortles serial email botherer Gary Naylor.

35 min: The Hull supporters are pointing out that, in their opinion, the referee has been getting a few decisions wrong, while also casting aspersions as to his proclivity for manipulating certain items within his underpants. Given that he's just given them a penalty, that might be a bit harsh. Perhaps the Arsenal fans were, in fact, chanting about this chap, as Ian Copestake has pointed out.

37 min: Eboue nearly plays the greatest accidental pass of all time. He fell over the ball, lay flat on the ground and then a Hull player, in attempting to clear it, simply whanged it against the Arsenal man's back. It looped over the defence to Nasri who, rather than shooting, took a touch too many. Shame. Then Arsenal work the ball back into the box and Bendtner has a shot charged down, before Arshavin lands one in Row Z.

41 min: There's a bit of handbags off the ball between Bendtner and Boateng which earns them both a yellow card. Then Dawson slides in on Denilson several months after the ball has gone, so he earns a yellow card and a little note in the Arsene Wenger book o' players he'll mutter about from now until eternity.

43 min: Apologies, technical issues have forced me to take the score down from up top. Arsenal are now, more or less, all over Hull and their flowing, passing, dribbling game is leaving Hull looking a little ragged. It leads to a half-dodgy challenge on Clichy in the box which, if he'd made more of, might have earned him a penalty. He gets to his feet and keeps his mouth shut, though, so doesn't get one. Sportsmanship 1-0 Shrewdness.

45 min: Nasri loops a ball over the top of Mouyokolo and the defender sort of does that wavey-army-block-attacker thing that is only just legal. The player he was obstructing was Arshavin who eludes his arms and then can't quite get enough foot on the ball to shoot.

RED CARD! Boateng, who was yellow-carded for pushing Bendtner in the face during that period of handbags, goes in late, with his studs up, and nails Sagna's knee. He's only given a yellow (his second) but it could have been a straight red.

Peep, peep: Sagna seems OK and Boateng did come back on the pitch to check, but that was a dreadful challenge and represents the end of the match for Hull. Bendtner and Vermaelen then contrive to make a complete nonsense of the free-kick. The striker ran up to the ball, made a pretend complaint to the ref about the distance of the wall, in order to allow Vermaelen to sneak up and slam it. Hull were having none of it and charged it down. And that's half-time.

As close to half-time punditry as it's going to get here: Odd as it may sound, given the penalty and the red card, it's not been quite the needle-fest predicted. Arsenal have been playing some nice football which has been hard given the state of pitch. It was churned up by the rugby league game played on it in the week (how much of that was a plan to disrupt Arsenal's game?) but hasn't affected the visitors too much. Nasri has been pulling strings for Arsenal, Bullard has been trying to do the same for Hull but their huff and puff has been fairly ineffective so far.

The penalty: it was a definite penalty ... or would have been if V of H hadn't been offside. Oddly, the pundits in the studio seem to have a line to the ref, who has told them he didn't think V of H had control of the ball, so that makes the decision to give the penalty a bit odd.

The red card: should have been a straight red rather than a second yellow. Boateng knows it was a bad one too.

An email: "Is George Boateng 'that type of a player'?" asks Balaji.

A sad man writes: "Can you put me in the MBM today? If I get in that will mean I've been in each one today," writes Aidan Gibson. "Yes that is very sad." We're nothing if not dream-makers, Aidan.

We're off again: Sagna is still on the pitch, so not too much damage there. Phil Brown has kept two strikers on and is playing three in the midfield. Another angle of the handbags incident, meanwhile, between Boateng and Bendtner showed that the Hull man just poked the Arsenal player in the eye. That could have been a straight red too. He was lucky that it wasn't seen by the ref but only by the linesman.

47 min: Arsenal play the ball around the back, then try to work it forwards. A Hull foot-in cedes possession, until they win it back but Vermaelen plays a poor ball to Cambell and allows V of H in. He lays it back, Fagan crosses, but plays it too long and Arsenal clear.

48 min: "What Arsenal need to do is bring on Theo - probably for Eboue - with Hull being down to just 10 men," reckons Tony Attwood and he's probably right. "Hull look like they are going to try ankle tapping, nudging and rotational fouling through the second half to try and disrupt Arsenal, so the longer Arsenal can spend in the Hull penalty area the better."

49 min: Arshavin dinks the ball into the box for Nasri to run onto. Nice move, nice idea, but no end result.

51 min: Altidor blazes up the pitch. He nicked the ball off an Arsenal player and then simply raced up three-quarters of the pitch. Instead of raking in a shot at the goal, though, he lays it off to V of H, who was offside. Next Zayate charges up the pitch and is felled by Campbell and left flat on his back. From one angle that looked a very good tackle by the veteran, from another, he should have been sent off. Tricky one and the ref elects not to card Campbell, who has a yellow from the penalty. The niggle, it seems, is back between these two sides.

52 min: "George Boateng's disciplinary record is second only to Lee Bowyer in Premier League history I believe," writes Gary Naylor. "So he is that sort of player."

53 min: Bullard lines up the free kick from that Campbell challenge, and sends the ball screaming a little wide and a bit too high of the goal.

54 min: Was that a handball by Campbell? Certainly V of H thought so. The ball was hit long to the edge of the area and bounced up underneath Big Sol's armpit. Meanwhile Zayate, who was felled by Sol just now, has limped off the pitch, limped back on, then collapsed in a heap. He's going to be replaced by Cooper.

56 min: "Hate to sound like a moaning Arsenal fan," writes Alex Leigh before going on a moan, "But no offside given just before the pen, Dawson not sent off for a reckless challenge, then Boateng not sent off for violent conduct for trying to poke Bendtner's eye out... and then Boateng only given a second yellow for a straight red."

57 min: By rights, there should be a lot of extra time at the end of this game. In the last six minutes there has been about 30 seconds of football and five-and-half minutes of fannying about with injuries, substitutions and lining up free kicks. Arsenal bring that to an end when they race down the left wing, cross and Myhill claims.

58 min: There is now lots and lots of needle in this match. The Arsenal players are getting quite good at dishing it out, too. Fagan is nobbled, then V of H is swiped over, so Bullard flings a free-kick into the box from wide and deep, which no-one can get a solid enough head to. So Arsenal charge up the other end and earn a corner. Cooper clears it.

60 min: Mendy tries to force his way up the right but is undone by the dangerous physical presence of, erm, Samir Nasri, who shepherds the ball out for a goal kick. Hull win it back and ping it to the right wing again, perhaps forgetting they don't have anyone playing there anymore.

62 min: Sagna chases a very long ball to the byline and gets to it just as it rolls into touch. Arsenal have been much less threatening in this half - Bendtner has been anonymous - suggesting that, one, Hull are keeping things tight and, two, Wenger needs to look to the bench.

64 min: Arshavin, who is now wearing blue boots, swings over a corner that doesn't do much to help their goal threat. On the sidelines, Theo Walcott is pulling off his kecks and doing warmy-uppy things.

65 min: Better from Arsenal, who pass the ball around outside Hull's box, until it breaks to Eboue on the right. His cross is poor though, and Hull break up the other end. Bullard takes aim, then wellies it just over the bar. Good effort. Eboue is coming off, Walcott is coming on.

67 min: That was quite some miss. Walcott terrified the life out of the Hull left-back Dawson, raced straight past him and into the box. He laid it back to Nasri who, instead of shooting, offloaded to Arshavin. He had acres of space, about a decade to line up the shot, but instead pinged it first time ... straight up into the air and 30 feet over the goal. He has the grace to look disgusted with himself.

69 min: Hull are getting everyone back and so Bendtner, as he races from side-to-side outside the area, finds two rows of four to get past. So he doesn't bother and Bullard nicks the ball and runs up the pitch, where he is tugged gently and earns a free-kick.

70 min: Walcott again goes past Dawson and, from virtually the corner flag, he digs out a cross but finds there are no Arsenal players in the box. Cooper clears. Walcott then does exactly the same thing a minute later, with more succesful results. It leads to a period of Arsenal pressure on the edge of the box before Marney gets it back to his keeper.

73 min: Walcott again goes past Dawson and he earns a corner. Arsenal take it quickly and will wish they hadn't as Hull manage to charge down Nasri's shot. Seconds later, Clichy runs up the left wing and puts in a good cross which is nodded back to Bendtner, who can't get a shot in. Garcia (and what looks like quite a belly) comes on for V of H.

74 min: My colleague Josh Widdicombe, the award-winning comedian, has emailed me this link with the subject line: Arshavin - a lesson in how to answer questions.

75 min: Walcott again is free on the right. This time, though, it's the right of the Hull penalty area. He passes it back to Arshavin who's tackled before he gets a shot away. Eduardo is coming on for Nasri who's played well though not as brilliantly as in the Champions League against Porto.

77 min: Again Walcott is all on his own on the right wing - are Hull just not going to bother marking him? - and he drives a cross over which Bernard Mendy hoofs literally out of the stadium. Good on him. A replacement ball is found, then deemed unacceptable, so another is dug out of the ball bag, which Arshavin crosses perfectly for a Hull head to clear.

79 min: Bendtner and Mendy have a bit of a tussle inside the box, which results in a Hull goal kick. Thought you'd like to know.

81 min: Arshavin dribbles up the middle of the pitch, completely unchallanged by anyone. He slips it right to Walcott, who passes it back to Bendtner, 10 yards out. His shot balloons over the bar (courtesy of a Hull foot) and goes out for a corner. Bendtner then stands back to watch the video screen footage of the shot, which is vain of him.

83 min: Another Arsenal chance goes begging. Walcott, Arshavin and Eduardo pass the ball about between them in the box before ... not bothering to shoot. Elsewhere, Altidore is coming off for Kilbane meaning Hull don't have a single striker on the pitch, while Zayatte has appeared on crutches on the sideline, with a knee injury derived from that Campbell challenge that may keep him out for the season. Or so they say on the telly.

84 min: Eduardo plays a defence splitting pass for Walcott, who ran in behind the Hull defence. Cooper, though, who looks about nine, nicked the ball off him and hammered it into touch. Great challenge.

85 min: A fate-tempter: are Arsenal going to blow this? Fagan runs onto a long ball which Vermaelen can do nothing with except nod behind for a corner.

86 min: Ah. Dawson swings over a long corner which is very easy for Almunia to claim. Mostly because half the Hull team are still lined up in front of their own goal in their own half.

87 min: Bendtner races into the box with Mendy in close attention. The Dane leans on the Hull man to such an extent that Mendy simply takes a step away. Bendtner goes sprawling, and Hull get the free-kick.

89 min: Hull are doing the sensible thing and taking a long time over throw-ins, free-kicks and the like. They're keeping it pretty tight at the moment.

90 min: Eduardo nips a ball into the box for Bendtner, which the Hull defence hoof out for a corner. Anything will do for them. Myhill punches the corner clear and Walcott attempts to drive it back in but to no avail. There will be six minutes of extra time which is fair, given the fannying about earlier.

90 min +1: Sagna crosses into the middle and the Hull centre-backs head it back out, for about the umpteenth time today. Hull have all their 10 players back just outside their box at the moment.

90 min + 2: Clichy sends in a skiddy shot from just outside the area. It goes straight into Myhill's arms. No danger there.

GOAL! Hull City 1-2 Arsenal (Bendtner, 90 min+2) Denilson shot from a mile out and, at the last minute, it swung away from Myhill. He punched when he should have caught, but his punch ran straight into the path of Bendtner. He knocked it into the ground and straight into the back of the net. Phil Brown looks gutted. His toe might hurt too, he just kicked something quite hard.

90 min +5: Ooh, Phil Brown looks furious. No matter who you support, that's always a sight worth seeing.

90 min + 6: Arsenal are now playing keep-ball, while Hull have stationed the greater majority of their players in the opposition's half. They'll be lucky.

Peep, peep: Kilbane tries the long-throw ... it's nodded back out of the Arsenal box and, with that, the whistle blows. Wenger shakes Brown's hand again, just managing to keep the smirk off his face. Boaz Myhill must be gutted. If he'd clung onto that Denilson shot, they would have got a point here.

In a funny kind of way, that was a very enjoyable game. There was plenty of needle and there were several extremely bad tackles and, though of course no-one wants to see injuries etc blah blah blah, that does always makes for an entertaining watch. It is undeniably good to see the odd enforcer.

Arsenal tried to play skillfully and Hull did well to limit them to only a few second-half chances, though the earlier introduction of Theo Walcott probably would have won this for the visitors easily.

Should Sol Campbell have been sent off for the penalty? Maybe. Should he have had a second yellow for the challenge on Zayatte? They've been given. However, Boateng can have no complaints, he should have had two red cards today, rather than two yellows.

With that, I'm off. Thanks for all your emails. Even the alarmingly violent anti-Arsenal ones.