Hull City Start Premier League Strong with Back-to-Back Wins
Ollie McBurnie walked through the mixed zone with a grin and a line ready.
"To say we're the worst team in Premier League history, it's not a bad start from the boys."
The jab was playful, but the point landed. Hull City, written off before a ball was kicked, have opened their Premier League return with back‑to‑back wins. First Manchester United. Now Coventry City, beaten late at a tense CBS Arena. The Tigers are not just here to make up the numbers; they are here to argue with the script.
Tigers dig in, then pounce
If the opening‑day shock against United was all adrenaline and ambition, this was something else entirely. This was stubborn. Ugly at times. Exactly what a newly promoted side needs away at a fellow relegation tip.
Liam Millar, off the bench and on the move, delivered the decisive moment in the 82nd minute, his late winner turning a grinding stalemate into a statement. Two wins from two. Second in the early table. Dreamland.
"We don't feel we have anything to prove to anyone. No-one has given us the Premier League, we have all earned it," McBurnie insisted. "We're there on merit, we deserve to be there, we don't have anything to prove to anyone. It's been a great start."
He refused to indulge in the wilder fantasies, but the away end did it for him. "We're going to win the league" rang out from the travelling support, half joke, half release. For a fanbase told all summer to brace for impact, why not enjoy the view from the clouds?
History, of course, offers a warning as well as comfort. Only three teams have ever gone down after winning their first two top‑flight games. Hull know that sting first-hand from 2016‑17, with Wolves in 2011‑12 and West Brom in 2017‑18 the others. The start is sparkling. The survival job remains unforgiving.
Built for the fight
At Coventry, Hull looked like they belonged. Not in the romantic sense, but in the hard, physical reality of Premier League football.
Semi Ajayi stood tall at the heart of the defence, dominating his duels and stripping Coventry of ideas the longer the game went on. In front of him, Nobel Mendy and Lucas Gourna‑Douath patrolled midfield with authority, towering over a Sky Blues side that saw plenty of the ball but rarely anything of real promise.
McBurnie harried, barged and bothered. He was less about finesse, more about presence, a constant nuisance who kept Coventry’s back line honest.
Hull are the first promoted side in nine years to win their opening two Premier League games, the last being Huddersfield Town, who beat Crystal Palace and Newcastle on their way to staying up by four points in 2017‑18. That kind of margin is exactly what Sergej Jakirovic is chasing. Nothing grander. Just survival.
Yet for long spells, his side struggled to spark. Mendy’s reaction when he was hooked on the hour told its own story. Hull’s record signing threw his hands up, shirt over his head, frustration spilling out as he trudged off. The Tigers looked short of inspiration.
Then the game’s tension flipped.
Coventry had close to 70% possession but could not break Hull down. Every sideways pass fed the anxiety in the stands. Every blocked cross added to the sense that the visitors were growing, not shrinking.
"The longer the game was 0-0 the pressure was more on them to win the game. A draw was not a bad result for us," McBurnie said. Hull played like they believed that. Coventry played like they knew it.
When Millar struck, it felt less like a smash‑and‑grab and more like the inevitable punishment for a home side that never truly found its edge.
Coventry’s reality check
For Coventry, 25 years of waiting for a Premier League game at home was not supposed to end like this. All that anticipation, all the build‑up, and after two matches they are left with nothing but a sharp reminder of how brutal this league can be.
A 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on the opening weekend was understandable. This one cuts deeper. This was the fixture ringed in red when the schedule dropped: a home game against a fellow promoted side, neatly placed between a trip to the champions and a visit to the runners‑up. A chance to breathe. A chance to bank points.
Instead, owner Doug King watched grimly from the stands as the minutes drained away and Millar’s goal went unanswered. Coventry’s players pushed, but they were persistent only in their limitations. Seven of the starting XI had begun the 0-0 draw with Hull that opened last season’s Championship campaign. This was meant to show how far they had come. It showed how far they still have to go.
They smashed 97 goals in winning the Championship title last season. That cutting edge has vanished, and the thigh injury keeping Haji Wright out for weeks does nothing to help.
Frank Lampard could feel the nerves from the dugout.
"This season was always going to be very different to last season but I sensed a bit of edge, that quality of pass and playing safe rather than play forward," he said. "Maybe that is apprehension.
"I don't like the excuse of it. Last week that was valid because of the level of opposition, the occasion, 25 years out and a lot of debuts. We shouldn't use it as an excuse today.
"It's a game against a team we played twice last year and we finished a lot of points above them. The Premier League gives that edge and we will have to get used to that and quickly.
"The lesson is don't expect anything in the Premier League. It depends how much you want it to be (a mental blow). There are 36 games left, we're two games in. It depends how you want to react to defeats."
The table will not soothe them. Ten promoted teams have lost their first two Premier League games and still survived, most recently Aston Villa in 2019‑20. The precedent is there. The comfort is thin.
Early blows, lasting scars?
Ashley Williams, who knows the terrain from Swansea’s rise, did not sugar-coat the psychological hit.
"They blitzed the Championship last year and were full of confidence coming into the season. But after two defeats everything suddenly becomes that much harder," he said on BBC’s Final Score. "As players, you look at the table and it's not nice when you are at the wrong end of it. Straight away they'll see they are already six points behind Hull and that's a real kick in the teeth.
"All those little doubts start to kick in so they've got to get to work and figure it out fast and I'm sure Frank Lampard will do that. However, Manchester City away next up is far from ideal."
Hull now stride into their next fixtures with momentum and a growing sense of purpose, their supposed relegation script already smudged. Coventry head to the Etihad chasing a first point of the season against the champions.
Two games in, one club is riding a surge it was never promised. The other is staring up at a gap that could define its year. How quickly can Coventry close it before the Premier League turns an early wobble into a season‑long struggle?
