Hull City 0-0 Aston Villa: Emery's men still winless and goalless in Premier League

Hull City maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League season via a goalless draw with Aston Villa, who are still yet to win or score a goal in the competition in 2026-27.

Unai Emery's men were vastly improved as an attacking force at the MKM Stadium, but Ross Barkley, John McGinn and Emiliano Buendia all squandered clear sights of goal.

Hull – who have still not conceded since returning to the top flight – enjoyed a strong finish and could have snatched all three points in stunning fashion, but Mohamed Belloumi's curler bounced off the crossbar. 

Villa had gone through their first two games of the season without having a single shot on target, but they finally managed one 14 minutes into this encounter as Konstantinos Tzolakis blocked George Hemmings' drive with his legs.

Nicolas Jackson had already headed off target before then, and Villa posted the greater threat throughout the first half, with Hull limited to tame efforts from distance by Belloumi and Regan Slater. 

The best chance of the opening period came when Buendia stepped over a right-wing cutback to tee up Barkley, but the Villa midfielder awkwardly kicked the ball onto his standing foot, and Tzolakis got down to turn it wide.

The visitors remained on the front foot early in the second half, with McGinn lifting a first-time effort over following a clever offload from Jackson, before Buendia somehow missed the target when completely unmarked barely 10 yards out, following some fine work from Hemmings.

But the closest either team came to breaking the deadlock was Belloumi's spectacular attempt in the 65th minute. After playing a corner short and receiving a quick return pass, the Algerian let fly with an ambitious, left-footed curler that struck the woodwork.

Emery showed visible signs of frustration on the sideline as Villa's forward thrust waned, and Hull had two more half-chances to keep their winning start to the season going. 

Mohamed-Ali Cho volleyed straight down Zion Suzuki's throat after some excellent hold-up play from Oliver McBurnie, who then failed to make proper contact with Ryan Giles' inviting delivery.

Sergej Jakirovic – who penned a new contract on Friday – will still be the happier of the two managers, though, with Hull second in the early-season table on seven points and Villa 17th on one.

Unwanted Premier League history for misfiring Villa 

Having failed to test either opposition goalkeeper in their defeats to Brighton (0-4) and Arsenal (0-1), Villa did at least avoid becoming the first team on record (since 2003-04) to not have a shot on target in their first three games of a Premier League season.

But despite showing far more creative impetus, they could not find a way past Tzolakis, with a lack of composure in front of goal costing them.

Villa had 13 shots to Hull's 11, also registering a 73.5% possession share and winning the expected goals battle by 1.74 xG to 0.58, but still, their wait to hit the net goes on.

And they are now the first team in Premier League history to fail to score in their opening three matches of back-to-back campaigns, having also gone four without a goal at the start of 2025-26. In English league history, the only other top-flight team to do so was Ipswich Town in 1969-70 and 1970-71.

At the other end of the spectrum, Hull are just the third promoted side to keep clean sheets in their first three games of a Premier League season, after Charlton Athletic in 1998-99 and Huddersfield Town in 2017-18.