YOU GET days like this, but not often enough. So lowly rated as not to be on anyone’s radar as potential winners at the Emirates stadium, Hull City came, saw and conquered. They won at a stadium where Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea have yet to beat Arsenal and the most remarkable part of the story is that the victory was fully deserved.

For 45 minutes they contained Arsenal comfortably and when they went behind to a scrambled Cesc Fabregas effort that was, in fact, an own goal by Paul McShane, there was an incentive for the home team to stretch clear. But it was the underdogs who had the greater bite. Their two goals, scored in the 62nd and 66th minutes, were magnificent and even though Arsenal pressed through the last half-hour one longed for Hull to hold on.

This was proof that the Premier League has not destroyed the game’s romance. They travelled in their thousands from Humberside, where Premier League fans are still wet behind the ears. As they filed out of Finsbury Park Underground station, you felt for them, feared for them and hoped Arsenal would just win the game and leave the humiliation to another day. How little we understand the spirit that beats within Phil Brown’s team.

Hull have made an excellent beginning to their Premier League lives; two wins and two draws from five matches before yesterday, but this seemed a challenge too far. But Hull didn’t accept that and didn’t surrender after the concession of a goal and though Arsenal enjoyed lots of possession, Hull’s sporadic attacks carried an unexpected threat. It was the Brazilian Geovanni who got his team’s first goal, receiving a pass wide on the left, cutting inside and striking venomously with his right foot past Manuel Almunia and into the top corner. One was pleased for Brown that Geovanni scored because it was a brave decision to select him on a day when Hull needed 11 workers.

They had 10 and one player who had something special. Geovanni often gave the ball away, he didn’t compete for it like his teammates but there wasn’t one other player in the Hull side who could have struck the magical shot that changed the complexion of this match. One second Arsenal were in front and almost comfortable, the next they were tied at 1-1 and fretting.

The winning goal was even better because it testified to Hull’s refusal to hang on for the draw. They won a corner on the right, left-back Andy Dawson hit a precise in-swinger that reached the head of the towering Daniel Cousin. His glancing header sailed high into the roof of the net.

It was as good a set-piece goal as you would ever see and, of course, it highlighted Arsenal’s vulnerability when defending corners, which Arsène Wenger conceded was a weakness.

After going behind, Arsenal upped the pace, Robin van Persie shot narrowly wide, William Gallas’s header hit the bar and in stoppage time, Fabregas struck a fine shot that Myhill saved brilliantly. As fine a piece of goalkeeping as that was, it was also Myhill’s first moment of serious action.

Hull’s strength was in their organisation and togetherness. Dawson had the wit and the pace to cope with Theo Walcott and there was nothing last-ditch about their defending. The strikers, especially Cousin, were always asking little questions of Arsenal’s defence.

The seed of Arsenal’s problem was sown in a first half where they wandered off into their world, spinning around in an orbit that permits a shot on goal only after four passes inside the penalty area and goals don’t count unless the scorer walks the ball into the net. Neat, intricate, occasionally pleasing on the eye but it didn’t cause Myhill many problems.

Fabregas blazed a half-chance wide of the far post, the midfielder then got into a great position but Hull’s defenders were alert to the pull-back for Emmanuel Adebayor and when the best chance of the half fell to Walcott, his touch was so clumsy that the chance vanished as quickly as it appeared. There were plenty of other occasions when Arsenal's intricacy was easy on the eye but even easier for the Hull defence. As Arsenal’s frustration grew, so too did one’s admiration for Hull.

Phil Brown had promised a physical battle but that threat masked the intelligence of his team’s approach. Testimony to Hull’s achievement was that through the final quarter, Arsenal had Adebayor, Van Persie, Niclas Bendtner and

Carlos Vela in their attack and still couldn’t get that equaliser.

Arsenal’s faithful seethed with exasperation, Hull’s thousands sighed with relief but, undeniably, the points had gone where they belonged.

Star man:Geovanni (Hull City)

Referee:A Wiley

Attendance:60,037

ARSENAL:Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Eboue (Bendtner 69min), Fabregas, Denilson, Walcott (Vela 77min), Adebayor, Van Persie

HULL CITY:Myhill, McShane, Zayatte, Turner, Dawson, Marney, Boateng (Garcia 76min), Geovanni (Hughes 72min), Ash-bee, Cousin (Mendy 80min), King