Unfortunate with refereeing decisions, a stupid red card, a plucky rearguard action, but ultimately a crushing defeat.  The City Premier League experience encapsulated in 90 minutes against Arsenal.

Report by Mike Scott.

The golden palace on the hill has its door left ajar. You see the door from the bottom of the steepling hill, but surely it will be closed once you ascend the mountain. You set off anyway and, remarkably, you get to the moat of the fine palace and the opening is still there. You tiptoe across the drawbridge, sidle up to the entrance and poke your wondrous gleaming face inside the door to see what lies behind.

At which point someone smacks you in the face with a cricket bat and you are sent tumbling back down the hill with mud on your knees, staunching the flow of blood from your splattered fizzog. That was yesterday's match. If Lord Wenger had simply shouted down the hill after 50 minutes "we've scored now, the door is shut, fuck off" the defeat would have been a lot easier to take.

Fighting manfully, in stark contrast to recent weeks, and no doubt reinvigorated by a return to 4-4-2, City lined up:

Myhill
Mendy Mouyokolo Zayatte Dawson
Fagan Bullard Boateng Marney
Vennegoor of Hesselink Altidore

The correct pairing up front, the bereaved McShane replaced by Mendy at right back and the return from suspension of Fagan. And Cairney excluded from the squad for some rather overblown demands lodged on his behalf by his pay-rise-seeking "legal representative". All fair enough. But who is this on the left wing? Soon switching to the right? Blimey, it's the unseen since December Dean Marney. I kind of assumed we'd sold him to some hapless Championship side, but apparently not. Marney's introduction was a source of some joy for Arsenal, who hunted him down in pairs every time he received the ball safe in the knowledge that the panicky engine room operative would cough up possession. He did for the first ten minutes, but to be fair he settled down OK after then.

The opening exchanges were entertaining. Arsenal stroked the ball around rapidly and attractively - as one would expect - and failed to walk the ball into the City net. City, for their part, enjoyed the extra space that Arsenal afford a side and played some attractive passes themselves, Bullard inevitably at the heart of things. Without Song, Arsenal lacked a tackling midfield presence and Jimmy wandered with gay abandon, head and shoulders above the opposition, without really creating much. Meanwhile Sol Campbell and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink featured in a match-up that so lacked pace, it threatened to open up a tear in the space-time continuum. Jozy Altidore rumbled around with some effect but when he had an early chance he scuffed his shot well wide.

On 15 Arsenal pinged passes around on the right and the ball was dribbled across the edge of the penalty area by the lanky, bumptious, Jedward-haired hoon that is "Nicky" Bendtner. He fed Arshavin centrally who did a mesmerising hip swivel thing, burst between two City men and drove a low shot to Myhill's left side. 0-1 in a flash. Floodgates presumably opened, seal cracked, etc.

Well no, actually. Bullard continued to prompt in midfield, feeding Marney sweetly on 19 but Dean's touch was heavy (yes, really!) and the threat evaporated. A moment later Myhill missed a cross and Mendy swept up behind clearing for a corner. Arshavin's delivery was pinpoint but Bendtner's header was wastefully wide. The Andy Cole of the 2010s.

Bullard chased down a cleared corner and lashed it high over Almunia's crossbar, Altidore won a dangerous free kick after nice interplay with JVoH and Bullard drove his 30 yard free kick into the Arsenal wall. But these were fleeting chances amongst a welter of Arsenal possession and rapier-flash passing. So it was a relief on 27 when Altidore lifted another pass into Vennegoor of Hesselink's path 10 yards out and Sol Campbell, behind the big man and ,astoundingly, seeming to be beaten for pace (later replays showed that the Dutch hitman was a couple of feet offside), clattered into the striker and ceded a soft penalty. With JVoH having only the keeper to beat, this was just about the most obvious candidate for "clear goal scoring opportunity denied" you will ever see, but referee Marriner charted a course well wide of common sense and only issued Campbell with a yellow - no doubt Wenger's constant stream of ludicrously one-eyed observations on referees influenced his appalling decision. Bullard drove the spot kick high and handsome to equalise, but a bitter taste was left by the denial of a red card.

On 37 Arshavin was set up by Bendtner after strong running down the right by Sagna, but the Russian hit his shot practically vertically and inspected the pitch closely for signs of a bobble-inducing divot. A further incursion down the right by Sagna was halted in summary fashion by a mistimed Dawson tackle, for which a yellow card was issued - in the ensuing introduction of handbags Bendtner and Boateng were booked for trash talking and a poke in the other's eye respectively. Low grade WWE stuff.

Five minutes later though these events took a more significant turn as Sagna once again advanced towards the heart of City's defence and Boateng delivered a high footed chopping tackle that succeeded only in raking his blades down Sagna's thigh. Second yellow, offski. Not what you expect from your captain I'm afraid, a further spell in Brownian exile may await George after this show of rashness.

So an entire second half with 10 men against the finest passing side of the generation. Thoughts of retaining parity were isolated to the blindingly optimistic and the deranged. And throughout the second half Arsenal retained possession well, played the game in City's half but time and again crashed on the granite of City's two lines of four. Brave headers, lunging blocks, this was all heroic stuff with Mouyokolo, Zayatte and later Cooper both featuring prominently. City had the occasional chance - Vennegoor of Hesselink headed wide in the first minute from a Marney cross, Altidore skipped past Denilson and Campbell but then passed to an offside Vennegoor of Hesselink when the American was placed centrally for a 20 yard shot. Zayatte strode out of the back four, lost the ball, regained it, advanced on the back four and received for his trouble a chopping tackle that definitely did take the ball but - and this is a point that will no doubt evade Monsieur Wenger - was definitely wreckless and dangerous and appeared to scatter young Kamil's ankle ligaments to all four corners of the KC before pinging back into his sock. The culprit was of course the lumbering Campbell. A true horror tackle from a man who shouldn't even have been on the pitch, and not even a free kick awarded. No doubt Arsenal will rattle on about how it's a man's game, without a shred of irony.

Cooper came on for Zayatte on 55 (the Guinean had tried manfully for a couple of minutes to run off a severed leg) and preceded to put in a composed performance, reading arsenal's fast paced game well and showing a pleasing desire to organise those around him. When we drop to the Championship next season we have a crop of youngsters that will serve City well. Into the final thirty minutes and Campbell headed a corner narrowly over while at the other end Vennegoor of Hesselink outpowered Denilson and combined with Altidore to set up Bullard for a shot that flashed a yard over the bar. Theo Walcott came on and immediately ran towards the City defence at frightening pace, leading to Arshavin skying another easy 15 yard shot after a Nasri dummy. Marney got his radar mixed up when tackling an Arsenal player that had his back to City's goal, but thankfully Dean's crashing block tackle saw the ball pile-drive straight at the grateful Myhill. Into the last 20 and Arsenal threw on Eduardo while City stuck Fagan up front as Vennegoor of Hesselink and Altidore made way for Garcia and Kilbane. 4-6-0 now, with Fagan springing from midfield whenever he could - and by and large it worked when matched with harem-scarem defending. But just as hope of a draw seemed to emerge, so it was snatched away. A generous six minutes of stoppage time was afforded, but it only took three of those minutes for Denilson to find space centrally and fire a 30 yard drive that Myhill could only paw towards the penalty spot where Bendtner lurked to hit a shot past the keeper as he failed to sort his feet out and effect a proper dive. It was a cruel goal and a shocking piece of goalkeeping, but Myhill was due a poor game after recent heroics.

A soul crushing defeat, but also a fine display of bloody mindedness that will serve City well in the coming nine games if repeated. Trouble is, we've seen it all before against the top sides, followed immediately but gutless nerve-strewn displays against the lesser Premier League foes. Portsmouth next week. Don't win that and we're probably sunk. We should ask Avram Grant to dress up his side in Manchester City shirts for the day.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; McShane, Mouyokolo, Zayatte, Dawson; Fagan, Bullard, Boateng, Marney; Vennegoor of Hesselink, Altidore.  Subs: Cooper (for Zayatte, 56), Garcia (for Vennegoor of Hesselink, 73), Kilbane (for Altidore, 83), Olofinjana, Barmby, Zaki, Duke.

Goals: Bullard 28 (pen)

Booked: Boateng, Dawson

Sent Off: Boateng

ARSENAL: Almunia, Vermaelen, Clichy, Campbell, Sagna, Arshavin, Eboue, Denilson, Nasri, Diaby, Bendtner. Subs: Walcott (for Eboue, 66), Eduardo (for Nasri, 76), Silvestre, Traore, Fabianski, Merida, Eastmond.

Goals: Arshavin 14; Bendtner 90

Booked: Bendtner, Campbell

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:    A Marriner

ATTENDANCE: 25,023