Hull City have made an eye-catching start to their return to the Premier League, taking seven points from their opening three fixtures under head coach Sergej Jakirovic and conceding no goals in any of them. The form matters because history is strongly in Hull's favour: no promoted side has ever been relegated after collecting seven or more points from its first three top-flight games, giving the club real hope of preserving their newly won status just 16 months after nearly dropping into League One.

Hull beat Manchester United and fellow promotees Coventry City before holding Europa League winners Aston Villa to a 0-0 draw, becoming only the third promoted team since 1998-99 to keep clean sheets in each of their opening three league matches. They have done it while seeing very little of the ball, just 29% possession on average, the lowest opening-three-games figure for any side since West Ham in 2023-24. Jakirovic, who signed a two-year contract extension on Friday, oversaw 18 summer signings costing around £150m, though he has cautioned that several new arrivals missed pre-season and that a top-flight campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.