Gunners fightback denies Hull

Arsenal 2 Hull City 1:Arsenal will meet Chelsea in the semi-final of the FA Cup after coming from behind to beat Hull City at the Emirates Stadium. Nick Barmby gave the visitors a first half lead but a Robin van Persie strike and a controversial William Gallas header kept the Gunners on track and spared them another defeat at the hands of Phil Brown's side.

Hull snatched the lead on 13 minutes when an angled shot from Barmby - who later had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside decision - saw his shot deflected up off Johan Djourou and spun over Lukasz Fabianski.

The young Polish goalkeeper - given a chance to impress in the cups ahead of regular number one Manuel Almunia - was at full stretch to tip over a free-kick from Geovanni, who smashed a superb strike here during the Tigers’ league win here in September.

Andrei Arshavin’s angled drive was diverted past the near post by Anthony Gardner but Hull remained dangerous with a header from Kamil Zayatte dropping on the roof of the net.

As half-time loomed, only a sliding block from Samuel Ricketts prevented Arshavin drilling in Walcott’s low cross, then the Russian flashed a right-foot volley across the face of goal.

After the break, Abou Diaby’s header from a corner bounced just inches the wrong side of the post, Arshavin had another close-range effort blocked, then Djourou’s header was cleared off the line - with Alex Song hooking the loose ball wide.

Van Persie then forced Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill into a full stretch save from his bending, 25-yard free-kick before seeing a looping header hit the top of the bar.

The reward eventually came with 16 minutes left. Substitute Nicklas Bendtner’s persistence in the penalty area paid off when he stabbed the ball across to Arshavin, who pulled it back to the penalty spot for the Dutchman to score.

Bendtner had a close-range shot blocked behind by Ricketts but Arsenal won it with six minutes to go when Gallas - stripped of the captaincy by Wenger earlier in the campaign after publicly questioning the young team’s battling qualities - nodded in when offside.