Hull City v Aston Villa: Premier League - live

Kick-off

After the PR announcer says a very boisterous hello to all four stands of the MKM Stadium in turn, the football mercifully comes to our rescue. Villa get us under way in sky blue and claret.

Hull would go top of the Premier League with a healthy win …

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“I am looking forward to watching how we will respond,” says Unai Emery as his Aston Villa team come into this off the back of two opening defeats and a tumultuous transfer window.

double quotation markWe are trying to build again our structure as strong as possible. Today is a new opportunity to try to get better. Our preparation was good last week. We were close, more or less, to be in a good shape with the players [against Arsenal].

Today is a new challenge against Hull City, who are performing fantastically. Already they are confident. This is our challenge.

The last Villa manager to come here in the Premier League was Paul Lambert, who was sacked the day after a 2-0 defeat in February 2015.

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Updated at 12.25 EDT

“Easy to say, three in a row,” smiles Hull Sergej Jakirovic in his pre-match interview, playing down the significance of a possible third win out of three since promotion for Hull.

double quotation markI know Aston Villa had a lot of changes. They sold a lot of players – a lot of good players. This is also our chance today to push them. Maybe there is pressure on them but they are used to this.

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Hull’s Lucas Herrington: ‘Zlatan told me not to fear anyone in the Premier League’

Herrington made the headlines this summer with his impressive displays as an 18-year-old centre-back for Australia at the World Cup – before missing a decisive penalty in their shootout exit to Egypt in the last 32. Zlatan Ibrahimovic offered to have a chat with the Colorado Rapids defender after that penalty miss.

Herrington, who turns 19 today, has since sealed a move to the Premier League and sat down for an interview with Joey Lynch this week …

double quotation markZlatan said: ‘Really, don’t fear anyone; I’m here for a reason, so just go enjoy it.’ It’s a great league; he played in it. His message was just to go have fun, and don’t fear anything. Go, work hard, be yourself … because it’s a great experience to play in the Premier League.

Read more …

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It’s fair to say Aston Villa are have operated in a totally different transfer market to Hull this summer – they’ve spent over £250m and still made a healthy profit after the sales of Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins. Hull have shelled out over £150m on virtually an entire other team but not recouped nearly as much.

Hull arrivals: Nobel Mendy (£20m), Konstantinos Tzolakis (£20m), Lucas Herrington (£17.1m), Ilyas Ansah (£14.5m), Tim Iroegbunam (£13m), Mohamed-Ali Cho (£13m), Christos Mouzakitis (£12.9m), Brooke Norton-Cuffy (£12m), Jens Hjertø-Dahl (£10m), Sorba Thomas (£7.5m), Joe Gelhardt (£6.5m), Jack Butland (£3.5m), Lucas Gourna-Douath (£3.4m), Elliot Stroud (£3m), Robinio Vaz (loan), Hidemasa Morita (free), Matt Targett (free), Oscar Zambrano (undisc.)

Total spend: £156.4m

Transfer balance: -£141.6m

Aston Villa arrivals: Johan Mamzambi (£51m), Nicolas Jackson (£47.5m), Ibrahim Mbaye (£47m), João Gomes (£34m), Zion Suzuki (£30m), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£25m), Matteo Ruggeri (£21.4m), Leon Goretzka (free), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (loan), Alejandro Garnacho (loan)

Total spend: £255.9m

Transfer balance: +£60.7m

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Starting lineups

Hull make one change from their 1-0 win against Coventry last Saturday as Lucas Gourna-Douath replaces Hidemasa Morita in midfield. The scorer of the winner at Coventry, Liam Millar, has since joined Birmingham. There are four deadline-day signings on the bench.

Hull (3-4-3): Tzolakis; Ajayi, Egan, Mendy; Coyle, Slater, Gourna-Douath, Giles; Belloumi, McBurnie, Stroud

Subs: Phillips, Thomas, Hjertø-Dahl, Norton-Cuffy, Herrington, Targett, Mouzakitis, Vaz, Cho

Tyrone Mings for Pau Torres at centre-back is Villa’s only change from their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal last Monday. Ibrahim Mbaye is on the bench after his £47m move from PSG.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Suzuki; Cash, Lindelöf, Mings, Maatsen; Kamara, Barkley; McGinn, Buendía, Hemmings; Jackson

Subs: Bizot, Ruggeri, Torres, Garnacho, Abraham, Mbaye, Bogarde, Wan-Bissaka, Alysson

The referee is Michael Oliver – the best in the country.

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Updated at 11.43 EDT

Preamble

Life is pretty good for Sergej Jakirovic right now – his unfancied Hull team have won their first two games back in the Premier League and yesterday he signed a new two-year deal as head coach. In the opposing dugout today is Unai Emery, already bordering on beleaguered, who is seeking to put a turbulent transfer window behind him and get Aston Villa off the mark for the season.

If it wasn’t for Tottenham and alphabetical order, Villa would have been bottom of the league after losing their opening two fixtures without scoring a goal. Emiliano Martínez, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins are gone but there is hope in the arrivals of fresh faces like Zion Suzuki, Nicolas Jackson and the exciting teenager Ibrahim Mbaye – all three are involved today.

Villa’s first away trip of the season was a 4-0 drubbing at Brighton – how will they fare in their second? Kick-off is at 5.30pm (BST). If you want to get involved, feel free to send me an email.

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