ARSENE WENGER admitted his Arsenal players had to fight for every ball before finally getting the better of Hull at the weekend.

Denilson's sweetly-struck free-kick gave the Gunners a half-time lead, but Hull were given the chance to level on the hour mark when referee Steve Bennett bizarrely awarded a penalty for Mikael Silvestre's innocuous challenge on Craig Fagan. However, justice appeared to have been done when Manuel Almunia guessed right to beat away Geovanni's effort from 12 yards, Stephen Hunt's follow-up header missing the target.

Abou Diaby then played a neat one-two on the left-hand side of the penalty box with Alex Song, and the move ended when the Frenchman crossed for Eduardo to turn in from two yards.

Diaby then wrapped up the game with a powerful shot after he was played through by Andrey Arshavin.

Wenger conceded that his team had to dig in against the Tigers after expending plenty of energy in the week's games against Liverpool and Burnley.

"We had to fight. We had problems a little bit to start because we left a lot of physical strength in our last two games at Liverpool and Burnley on Wednesday night and it took us some time to get into the game and to find the pace,” said the Frenchman. “In the first half we didn't look very fresh but we got in front and in the second half I believe even if it was a turning point with the penalty they missed, to me the penalty looked really, really harsh and we scored straight away a second goal and we had plenty of chances after."

He also revealed that Denilson was not expected to take the free-kick that ultimately changed the game for the hosts.

He added: "Denilson is not a free kick specialist. I was quite surprised, he was not specially named because it was Nasri who was going to take it and he took it well. I thought first he wanted to cross the ball but he scored. It changed the game."

The first half was marred by a 21-man pushing and shoving contest when Samir Nasri appeared to stamp on midfielder Richard Garcia's foot after the Hull man had pushed the Frenchman. Replays suggested Nicky Barmby repsonded by shoving Nasri in the face, before Song waded in to restrain the former England international, with players from both sides arriving on the scene to break up the fracas.

Asked whether Nasri was lucky to remain on the pitch, Wenger added. “I will watch it again but it was very difficult to see that he stamped on the foot but if he had gone certainly a player of Hull would have gone as well.”