Hull City’s Impressive Start Continues with Victory Over Coventry

Ollie McBurnie walked through the mixed zone with a grin and a barb ready. "To say we're the worst team in Premier League history, it's not a bad start from the boys," he said, the joke landing as hard as any header he’d won all afternoon.

Two games back in the Premier League. Two wins. Hull City, written off before a ball was kicked, are suddenly looking very comfortable in territory many assumed would swallow them whole.

Tigers show their teeth

The opening-day win over Manchester United had been all adrenaline and adventure. This was different. This was about grit.

At the CBS Arena, against a side many see as a direct rival in the survival scrap, Hull dug in, waited, and then struck. Liam Millar’s 82nd-minute winner didn’t just seal a 1-0 victory over Coventry, it sent the away end into delirium and handed Sergej Jakirovic’s side a surge of belief.

"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."

The Scotland striker refused to get carried away, but the soundtrack behind him told its own story. From the away section: “We’re going to win the league.” Fanciful? Of course. But that’s the point. Hull fans are enjoying a moment many outside the club said they’d never see.

History, though, offers a warning as well as comfort. Only three teams have ever been relegated from the Premier League after winning their first two games – Wolves in 2011-12, Hull themselves in 2016-17, and West Brom in 2017-18. The Tigers know how quickly the mood can turn.

For now, they sit second in the early table, a far cry from the predictions that followed their Championship play-off final win over Middlesbrough, when their survival hopes were dismissed almost instantly.

Built for the fight

At Coventry, Hull looked like they belonged. Semi Ajayi bossed the heart of the defence, a hulking presence who repeatedly shut down the Sky Blues’ attacks and forced them wide and harmless.

In front of him, Nobel Mendy and Lucas Gourna-Douath imposed themselves physically and aerially, towering over their opponents and breaking up what little rhythm Coventry tried to build. McBurnie, meanwhile, never stopped niggling, backing in, chasing lost causes and turning hopeful punts into problems.

Hull are the first promoted side in nine years to win their opening two Premier League games, the last being Huddersfield in 2017-18. The Terriers stayed up by four points that season. For Jakirovic, that kind of margin remains the realistic target.

This wasn’t a flowing attacking display. Hull struggled to create much until Millar arrived from the bench to change the game. Before that, frustration had bubbled up – most visibly when Mendy, the club’s record signing, reacted angrily to being substituted on the hour, throwing his hands up and pulling his shirt over his head.

But as the minutes ticked by, the pattern suited Hull. Coventry had almost 70% of the ball but rarely looked like breaking them down. The more the hosts prodded without reward, the more agitated they became. And the more Hull grew.

"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. Instead, they left with all three points and something more valuable: proof that they can suffer, stay organised and still land the decisive punch.

Coventry’s reality check

For Coventry, this was not how a long-awaited return was supposed to begin.

Twenty-five years away from the Premier League, all that anticipation and build-up, and after two games they have nothing to show but a harsh reminder of what this level looks like. A 3-0 defeat at champions Arsenal could be parked as a free hit. Losing at home to fellow promoted side Hull cannot.

This fixture had been ringed in red when the schedule dropped. Arsenal away, Manchester City away to come – Hull at home in between felt like a chance to get on the board. Instead, owner Doug King watched grimly from the stands as Millar’s late strike slipped past his goalkeeper and the Sky Blues never found a response.

They were busy, they were honest, but they were blunt. Seven of the starting XI had also begun the 0-0 draw with Hull that opened last season’s Championship campaign. The familiarity didn’t translate into control or cutting edge.

Frank Lampard sensed something deeper.

"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."

Coventry’s swagger from last season, when they scored 97 goals on their way to the title, has not yet made the leap with them. Haji Wright’s thigh injury, which will keep him out for weeks, strips away one of their main attacking threats at the worst possible time.

There is at least a sliver of comfort in the numbers: 10 promoted sides have previously lost their first two Premier League games and still survived, most recently Aston Villa in 2019-20. The path is brutal, but not blocked.

Early blows, lasting impact

Ashley Williams, who knows this climb after going up with Swansea in 2011, believes the psychological damage could linger.

"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, six points clear of Coventry already, travel on with momentum and a bit of mischief in their stride. Coventry, staring up the table and down the barrel of a trip to the Etihad, must decide how quickly they can turn a bruising start into a hardened edge.

Two games in, the gap between these promoted sides is already visible. The question now is whether it keeps growing – or whether Coventry can drag themselves back into Hull’s slipstream before the season starts to run away from them.