Arsenal eventually cruised to victory against lowly Hull City at a low-key, passionless and far-from-full Emirates Stadium.

Their second-half display was reminiscent of the flowing football with which they started the season.

But they didn’t get going until a pivotal series of events either side of half-time, with their second goal, from Croatian striker Eduardo immediately following a Tigers’ penalty miss which could have seen the game take on an entirely different complexion.

The thousands of fans who missed the early stages because of transport difficulties had little reason to feel short-changed, as if the players waited until they’d got there before providing any entertainment.

The catalyst was a hotly-disputed free-kick awarded for an innocuous challenge by Hull’s Geovanni on the Gunners’ Russian forward Andrei Arshavin.

An unseemly melee followed, sparked by Arsenal’s Samir Nasri standing on Hull defender Ricardo Garcia’s foot for no obvious reason.

The Tigers’ Nick Barmby waded in to exact revenge, although it was Steven Hunt who joined the guilty Nasri in the referee’s notebook.

And in the stoppage time that resulted, Brazilian midfielder Denilson celebrated his return to the side after injury by curling a superb free-kick past Boaz Myhill’s right-hand in the Hull goal.

Ten minutes after the break, the visitors’ were gifted a chance to equalise by what even manager Phil Brown described as a “soft” penalty for an indeterminate shirt-tug by Mikel Silvestre on Craig Fagan.

But Geovanni’s spot-kick was saved by Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia and Geovanni and Hunt comically got in each other’s way as they tried to head the rebound into an empty net, the ball sailing harmlessly wide.

Moments later, Arsenal’s Abou Diaby crossed for the confidence-free Eduardo to stab the ball in off the post from a yard-and-a-half.

With ten minutes remaining, Diaby played a one-two with Arshavin and nutmegged Myhill with a left-foot drive which gave the scoreline a slightly flattering look.