Arsenal vs Hull City Preview

January 3, 2015
By: Deke Hardman

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Sunday’s FA Cup action concludes at the Emirates Stadium with a repeat of last season’s final as holders Arsenal face Hull City.

In a thrilling game at Wembley back in May, Steve Bruce’s men took a two goal lead early on, though the Gunners fought back to tie the game 2-2 after ninety minutes, with Aaron Ramsey hitting the winner in extra-time.

The host’s five game unbeaten run came to an end on New Year’s Day as they were defeated 2-0 by fellow top-four hopefuls Southampton in the league, leaving them thirteen points behind leaders Chelsea.

They are still in the Champions League and were handed a favourable draw against Monaco in the last sixteen of the competition, though many would argue that this is their best hope of landing silverware this season.

Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil face a race against time to be fit enough for selection, but Lukas Podolski, Yaya Sanogo, Jack Wilshire, Abou Diaby, Mathieu Flamini, Danny Welbeck, Mikel Arteta and Serge Gnabry are all side-lined and Olivier Giroud is suspended.

Alexis Sanchez is favourite to open the scoring at 4.5 (7/2) with a variety of firms, with Theo Walcott widely available at a price of 6.0 (5/1).

The home win is a 1.36 (4/11) shot with Bet 365, with the visitors as highly priced as the 10.0 (9/1) with Bet Victor while the draw can be found at 5.5 (9/2).

Hull have won two of their last three matches in the league but remain just two points above the Premier League relegation zone.

Aside from those two wins, they have managed only three more since that defeat at Wembley in May though they were just moments away from beating Arsenal when the sides met in the league back in October.

Like their opponents, the visitors have a number of absentees, with Gaston Ramirez, Michael Dawson, Liam Rosenior, Andy Robertson, Robert Snodgrass and Mohamed Diame all out injured.

Abel Hernandez is 12.0 (11/1) to get the first goal of the game with a number of bookmakers, as is Nikica Jelavic, who hit his sixth of the season in Thursday’s win over Everton.

All but one of the previous nine meetings between these two sides have seen three or more goals, and you can back that outcome at 1.61 (8/13) with Betfair.

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