BROWN SET FOR TOUGHEST TEST YET

Brown - ready for Gunners test.

Hull boss Phil Brown insists his side will not take any prisoners at Arsenal on Saturday.

Brown is determined to take the battle to the Gunners as the Tigers face their toughest test yet since promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

Hull have taken eight points from five games in an impressive start to the season but Brown accepts Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium will be a whole new proposition.

He admits he was awe-struck by some of the play in Arsenal's 3-1 win over Bolton last week but he is convinced Hull can compete if they disrupt the Londoners' game.

"I saw what I needed to see at Bolton last week and I closed my eyes. For 20-25 minutes they played some of the most sublime football I have ever seen in my life," Brown said.

"It is one of those where you hope you are going to catch them on an off day.

"We have got to be careful in our approach. I want them to be on the front foot because Bolton went on the front foot in the second half and the game changed, they had one or two opportunities.

"I think we have got a bunch of physical players and our physicality manifests itself in heading, tackling and interceptions. They might already be our best weapons this season."

He added: "If you are a technical player, and I am a physical player, I am going to impose myself on you, it's as simple as that.

"I understand if you are just going around kicking - I wouldn't advocate that from any one of my teams, I don't want anybody to just go up to somebody and kick them - but if in his desire to get the ball back he causes pain to the opposition or his opponent, then so be it.

"I don't think it is necessarily roughing them up, it is playing to your strengths."

Arsenal were angered last week by a tackle from Bolton's Kevin Davies on Gael Clichy while manager Arsene Wenger also complained recently about Theo Walcott's treatment in a Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev.

Davies was booked for his full-blooded challenge, which won the ball, and Brown felt the Trotters striker was hard done by.

"If that gets outlawed out of the game we might as well not turn up," Brown explained.

"If he [Wenger] is telling me William Gallas and Kolo Toure are not going to be physical with our front two, then you are sadly mistaken.

"Of course it is about imposing yourself on the opposition, individually and then collectively."

Yet as well as demanding full commitment from his players, Brown claims they will also try to play good football.

Hull gave a good account of themselves in that respect in their win at Newcastle a fortnight ago and in last week's draw against Everton and Brown wants to maintain that standard.

He said: "We showed that the fourth string to our bow against Everton was that we could play.

"We add tackling, heading, intercepting to playing and you have got a half-decent team."

Hull will be without former Tottenham defender Anthony Gardner due to the thigh injury which kept him out of the Everton game.

New signing Stelios Giannakopoulos, who joined the club until the end of the season this week, also lacks match fitness and is not yet in contention.

George Boateng is likely to return to stiffen the midfield and Brown believes the side he names will give a good account of themselves.

"The majority of our players can handle the situation," he added.

"I am going to put the big guns out, I am going to play my experienced team, my strongest team.

"I am not necessarily going to keep the team that has got four points from the last two games.

"If we play the way we played against Everton in the first half we will cause them problems."