Hull City vs Aston Villa: match preview, form and the key numbers

Hull City host Aston Villa on Saturday 5 September, kicking off at 5.30pm UK time (16:30 UTC), with the early Premier League table offering one of the sharpest contrasts of the season's opening weeks: a home side with a perfect record against visitors still searching for a first point, and a first goal.

Hull's flawless start

According to the Premier League table, Hull sit second with six points from two matches, their form line reading W,W — three scored, none conceded. That makes them the only side in the division to have kept clean sheets in both of their matches, and only goal difference separates them from leaders Manchester City, the other club to have won both of their opening fixtures.

Few would have tipped Hull to be occupying second place at this stage of a campaign, but two matches is a slender sample. Saturday brings the first serious test of whether this start is a foundation or a false dawn.

Villa's bruising beginning

Aston Villa's opening could hardly have differed more. The Premier League table shows them 18th after a single match: no points, no goals scored and four conceded. Villa are one of seven clubs yet to register a point, though three of the others have already played twice, and a victory on Saturday would, on the table as it stands, lift them clear of the bottom three.

The fixture offers an early chance to correct course before a sluggish start hardens into a pattern — and to answer the most pressing question of all: where will a first goal of the campaign come from?

The key numbers

• Hull City: 2nd, 6 points from 2 matches, 3 scored, 0 conceded, form W,W — Premier League table
• Aston Villa: 18th, 0 points from 1 match, 0 scored, 4 conceded, form L — Premier League table
• Hull and Manchester City are the only clubs to have won both of their matches — Premier League table

The duel at the heart of it

The most compelling subplot is a collision of records: a Hull defence that has yet to be breached against a Villa attack that has yet to score. Whichever run gives way first may well decide the contest — if either gives way at all.

Odds and predictions

Odds were not available in FanTribe's match data at the time of writing, and no prediction figures had been published, so the table remains the only objective guide: a Hull side with momentum and a defence yet to be troubled, against a Villa team with a point to prove after a bruising opener.

Two matches tell us little in the long run. By Saturday evening, though, one of these clubs will know a good deal more about what their start really means.