Gunners fire three past Hull

Arsenal moved back into third place in the Barclays Premier League following their comfortable 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Hull at the Emirates Stadium.

Goals from Denilson, Eduardo and Abou Diaby earned Arsene Wenger's side all three points in a bad-tempered affair.

But the Gunners also had to give credit to goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who saved a penalty from Geovanni when the home side led 1-0.

Arsenal had found little rhythm in their play and Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill - apart from a couple of long shots - had been relatively untroubled, but the contest erupted shortly before the break when Samir Nasri trod on the ankle of Richard Garcia as Arsenal prepared to take a free-kick.

Stephen Hunt then clashed with Nasri and a mass confrontation took place in front of referee Steve Bennett with Arsenal goalkeeper Almunia sprinting 100 yards to get involved.

Fagan tried to drag Hunt away from the incident as players from both sides became embroiled in ugly scenes. Bennett eventually booked both Hunt and Nasri when the fracas subsided.

Arsenal rubbed salt into Hull's wounds seconds later when Denilson scored from a free-kick after George Boateng had fouled Diaby 25-yards from goal.

There was more controversy in the 55th minute when referee Bennett awarded Hull a penalty after Mikael Silvestre had been adjudged to have pulled the shirt of Fagan, but Almunia saved a poor Geovanni spot-kick and then Hunt headed the rebound wide of the target.

Worse was to come for Phil Brown's side in the 59th minute when Diaby broke into the penalty area and pulled the ball back for Eduardo to tap home.

Arsenal wrapped up the points in the 80th minute when Diaby played a one-two with Arshavin and fired the ball past Myhill.