Hull City host Aston Villa at Kingston Communications Stadium on Saturday, September 5 (12:30 PM ET \/ 11:30 AM CT \/ 9:30 AM PT).<\/p>\n
Hull City will be without the injured Jack Butland, Darko Gyabi, Charlie Hughes, Oscar Zambrano, Eliot Matazo and Matt Crooks, while Joe Gelhardt and Matty Jacob are doubts. Even so, the attacking group that has carried the team so far \u2014 goalscorers Oluwasemilogo Ajayi, Nobel Mendy and Liam Millar, playmaker Regan Slater and target man Oliver McBurnie \u2014 should still be able to feature. Aston Villa have their own list of concerns: the suspended Joao Gomes, the injured Amadou Onana, Johan Manzambi, Brian Madjo and Leon Bailey are all missing, with Tammy Abraham a doubt, leaving Ross Barkley, Boubacar Kamara and Matty Cash among the senior men Villa are leaning on.<\/p>\n
Hull City have made the ideal start, taking six points from their opening two matches without conceding more than once in either game, while Aston Villa opened with a chastening four-nil defeat at Brighton and sit on zero points from their sole outing. This has the makings of a tight, low-scoring afternoon: Hull have not needed more than two goals to win either match so far, and Villa’s front line, shorn of Leon Bailey and Joao Gomes, are still searching for their first goal of the campaign. Expect a scrappy, cagey contest settled by a single moment rather than an end-to-end shootout.<\/p>\n\n\n