Hull City hold Aston Villa to a goalless draw and stay unbeaten through three games

George Hemmings forced Aston Villa's first shot on target of the entire season inside the opening quarter of an hour, in what was billed as Unai Emery's 200th Premier League game in charge. It was as close as either side came for long stretches of an afternoon that ended goalless at the MKM Stadium.

John McGinn's clipped effort carried too much and drifted over the crossbar, and Emiliano Buendía blazed over from the visitors' biggest chance of the match. For Hull, Mohamed Belloumi went agonisingly close in the second half, rattling the crossbar as the hosts pushed for a fourth straight clean sheet.

Villa's toothless attack continues

Aston Villa had 73.8% of the possession and completed almost four times as many passes as Hull, yet managed only one shot on target all afternoon — and it took them three games to register that first one. Hull, defending compactly with a fraction of the ball, still out-shot them on target by four to one.

Hull's bargain number 10

Mohamed Belloumi, who came closest to breaking the deadlock when he rattled the crossbar in the second half, is one of the finds of Hull City's promoted season. The 24-year-old Algerian, who wears the number 10 shirt, cost the club just €5.5 million when he arrived from Portugal's Farense in 2024. He underlined that value a week later with a two-goal display away at Chelsea, the kind of afternoon that turns a promoted club's bargain buy into a player the rest of the division starts planning around.

Since the stalemate

Hull's form has cooled since that afternoon at the MKM Stadium. A 2-2 draw at Chelsea followed, Belloumi's brace twice cancelling out Chelsea leads to keep Sergej Jakirović's side unbeaten, before a first defeat of the season arrived at Newcastle United, Joe Willock and Lewis Hall scoring inside the opening seven minutes to end a run that had also earned Jakirović the Premier League's Manager of the Month award for August. Across their last five league matches, Hull have taken two wins, two draws and one defeat, scoring six goals and conceding four.

Aston Villa's form swung the other way. Unai Emery's side won away at Club Brugge in the Champions League three days after the Hull draw, then lost 1-2 at home to a resurgent Nottingham Forest despite Alysson's equaliser giving them their first Premier League goal of the season. The breakthrough came a week later: a 3-0 lead built by Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson and Emiliano Buendía survived a late Tottenham fightback for a 3-2 win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — Villa's first league victory of the campaign, after four matches without one.

What's next

Hull City are 3rd on 7 points, inside the Champions League places, and have kept three clean sheets in three games. They travel to Chelsea on Saturday 12 September. Aston Villa sit 17th on 1 point, just above the relegation zone, and host Nottingham Forest the same afternoon at Villa Park.

Three matchweeks on

Heading into the next international break, Hull City sit 8th on 8 points from five games — two wins, two draws and a defeat, with six goals scored and four conceded — just a point behind Liverpool. Aston Villa have climbed to 16th on 4 points, still only a point clear of the relegation zone, with Coventry City and AFC Bournemouth both level on 3 points immediately below them.