Havertz was held before he was offside, and Ødegaard’s rebound put Arsenal six points clear anyway
Hull kept Arsenal out for 71 minutes and VAR turned down a penalty, but Martin Ødegaard’s goal and Manchester City’s defeat at Forest leave the champions six points clear.
Nov 8, 2026
For 71 minutes at the Emirates, Hull City did almost everything right. Then Noni Madueke’s low shot was parried by Konstantinos Tzolakis, Martin Ødegaard got to the rebound first, and Arsenal had a 1-0 win that leaves them six points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Manchester City lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest later on Saturday, so the gap held. Arsenal have 27 points from ten games, nine wins and one defeat, which equals the best start the club has ever made to a Premier League season. City have 21, and the league now stops for the international break.
The penalty that wasn’t
The talking point came just before half-time. Kai Havertz was running in behind when Hull’s Nobel Mendy held his shirt, and the referee, Farai Hallam, was sent to the monitor. He came back and gave Hull a free-kick, because Havertz had been offside at the start of the move.
That looks like the wrong call. An offside player who isn’t trying to play or challenge for the ball hasn’t committed an offence yet, so the shirt pull came first and Arsenal should have had a penalty. Mike Dean, the former Premier League referee, said so on Soccer Saturday. “It should have been a restart with a penalty, not an offside,” Dean said.
Mikel Arteta sounded more puzzled than angry. “I was confused because when the referee went to the monitor, it was because it was a clear penalty but they made a different decision based on the offside,” he told Sky Sports. “We haven’t got any clarity yet about the situation.”
Chances missed, then a scrappy winner
Hull’s best moment came early, when Elliot Stroud’s curler forced a full-stretch save from David Raya. To be fair to the officials, Arsenal then had their own chances to make the VAR call irrelevant. Declan Rice put one narrowly wide from the edge of the box, and Madueke was denied by Tzolakis’s foot at the near post early in the second half.
The goal, when it arrived, wasn’t much to look at. Madueke cut inside and shot, Tzolakis couldn’t hold it, the ball dropped in the six-yard box and the captain was quickest to react.
It should have been 2-0 late on. Mikel Merino slipped Madueke through, but he couldn’t get round Tzolakis and a Hull defender scrambled the loose ball off the line.
Not pretty, and Arteta knows it
Arteta didn’t pretend the attacking side was there. “We had some big moments that we should have scored and we didn’t hit the target, get the final pass, we are one-on-one with the ‘keeper and don’t take the chance,” he said.
He was happier with the defending, and he had reason to be. Gabriel and Ezri Konsa barely gave Hull a sniff after that early Stroud effort, and Arsenal kept another clean sheet.
Six points is not a title, and it is only November. But City have lost three league games in a row, and Arsenal get to spend the international break grumbling about one VAR call from six points clear. Maresca would take that problem in a heartbeat.