Angus is an experienced football journalist at Football FanCast, specialising in Premier League reporting, opinion writing and in-depth football analysis. Since graduating from Southampton Solent University in 2022, he has developed extensive experience covering the English game, producing thousands of articles across a wide range of clubs and competitions.  

Before joining Football FanCast, Angus led VAVEL's Brighton & Hove Albion department, gaining valuable experience in club-specific reporting and editorial leadership. He subsequently joined Football FanCast through Snack Media's academy, now part of Valnet, and has progressed into the publication's Opinions and Features team.
 

As one of Football FanCast's longest-serving writers, Angus has covered numerous major developments across the Premier League, combining breaking news experience with detailed features and considered opinions. His work draws on years of reporting to provide context behind performances, transfer activity and the wider issues shaping English football.

WIth Manchester City having been defeated by Nottingham Forest, Arsenal have opened up a six-point lead at the top of the Premier League, winning 1-0 against Hull City earlier in the day.

Disregarding Enzo Maresca's side's slump in form, City may well be in no position to challenge the Gunners for the title in any case, for they have been charged with severe financial breaches which could result in a hefty points deduction or even expulsion from the Premier League.

Mikel Arteta will be pleased with a job well done, but it certainly will not have been lost on the insatiable manager that his forwards left something to be desired, with Kai Havertz ineffective at centre-forward.

What went wrong for Kai Havertz vs Hull

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Havetz is how he keeps on blowing hot and cold, hot and cold.

At times - times such as the momentous win over Liverpool at Anfield last season - the German looks like the centre-forward Arteta's project has craved for so long.

But then he falls a few steps back, as he did across a frustrating performance against Hull, whose gritty defending proved too much for Havertz and his lack of instinctiveness in the final third.

It will not be lost on the manager that his alternative is Viktor Gyokeres, a prolific striker, sure, but someone who is incongruous in Arsenal's system, so limited is he from a technical perspective.

Arsenal and their manager may have to persist with Havertz for the remainder of the campaign - or at least until January - but he's not the only forward failing to catch the eye right now, with one of his teammates even worse on the afternooon.

Arsenal signing was even worse than Havertz

Noni Madueke played a sublime game on the right, filling in for the injured Bukayo Saka and perhaps even offering more than the current iteration of the boy wonder.

However, Christos Tzolis will not have finished the game with the same feel-good factor, having suffered throughout the game, unable to combine with Havertz and channel his creativity past a stubborn Hull backline.

Tzolis, 24, provided physicality and energy down the left, winning seven duels across the course of the evening and striking four times at goal (albeit without much success on that front).

However, this has been emblematic of how Tzolis has flaked away following on from an emphatic start to his Arsenal career, bursting onto the scene after a £35m transfer from Club Brugge in belgium with vicious intent.

Arsenal content creator James Clark admitted that Tzolis had "a torrid game" against Hull, unable to make the right decisions or influence play as he would have liked. Four times did he attempt a cross into the danger area, and four times he missed the mark. Despite a poor creative performance, the winger still lost the ball every three touches on average, illustrating his wastefulness.

Frustratingly, Tzolis looked sharp at Anfield, returning to form, but he's now regressed in the same way that Havertz has, and this kind of ebb and flow is only going to hinder Arteta's side's chances of going from strength to strength and achieving an even higher kind of success this year.

Tzolis has a part to play in this Arsenal project, but he was signed as Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard were both slated to leave the Emirates at the end of the 2025/26 season.

He was not signed as an altenative to summer transfer targets such as Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez. It's clear that technical director Andrea Berta is going to have to dig into the club's pockets to find an ugprade in 2027.