Hull City’s remarkable return to the Premier League has been the story of the season so far and history suggests their stunning three-game start will see them stay in the top flight against all odds.
When the previews and predictions for the 2026/27 campaign were typed up, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone tipping the Tigers not to finish rock bottom let alone outside the bottom three.
Challenging and perhaps outdoing Derby County’s now-biblical 11-point and one-win low were the more reasonable expectations. But any chance of that has been shattered inside less than a month.
It started with a famous and fully deserved win over Manchester United and what might be the best ever debut win in the top flight by Sergej Jakirovic.
Hull’s brilliant Bosnian manager somehow masterminded promotion via the play-offs last season but his side did finish 22 points behind all-conquering champions Coventry City. That mattered little when the two newly promoted sides met in a genuine relegation six-pointer – or nine-pointer to quote George Best – on the second weekend of the season.
Liam Millar’s late goal had the Tigers top of the table for a moment and a very solid 0-0 draw with Aston Villa on Saturday evening has them nestled in third place behind Arsenal and Manchester City.
Morgan Rogers’ goal in Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal after 77 seconds at the Emirates on Sunday confirmed the Tigers’ unlikely and incredible status as the only side yet to concede a goal across England’s top four divisions.
Jakirovic joked after Saturday’s draw that his side could now “maybe expect to fight for a Champions League place” but he will be aware that finishing fourth from bottom will be celebrated like a top-four finish on the banks of the Humber.
Seven points from their opening three games puts them in exalted company as one of only six promoted sides in the post-1992 era to achieve at least seven points.
| Promoted side | Points after three games | League finish |
|---|---|---|
| Bolton Wanderers 2001/02 | 9 | 16th |
| Blackburn Rovers 1992/93 | 7 | 3rd |
| Nottingham Forest 1994/95 | 7 | 4th |
| Portsmouth 2003/04 | 7 | 13th |
| Huddersfield Town 2017/18 | 7 | 16th |
| Hull City 2026/27 | 7 | ? |
Two of them – Blackburn in 1992/93 and Nottingham Forest in 1994/95 – did finish in the top four but it was a very different landscape back then and Rovers were managed by Kenny Dalglish and had just broken the British transfer record to land Alan Shearer.
Sam Allardyce’s Bolton side amazingly won all of their three opening games in 2001/02 but tailed off considerably to finish 16th, as did Huddersfield in 2017/18, and Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth (13th) in 2003/04.
Sunderland and, to a lesser extent, Leeds United set the tone last year for promoted sides with the Black Cats clinching the most unlikely of European spots on the final day. It thankfully ended a two-year sequence where all three promoted sides went straight back down.
While anything close to that cannot be expected from the Tigers, the fact their fellow felines were also play-off winners provides even more hope. It was once deemed a near-death knell with a shorter summer for recruitment and a fairly perceived shortage of top-flight quality.
Instead, the experience of battling for every single point and not being a dominant side – which Hull were not at all in the Championship – seems to have worked in their favour.
It would be remiss to talk about any newly promoted side’s strong start, and obviously Hull’s, without mentioning the best, which of course was Phil Brown’s Tigers in 2008/09 in what was the club’s first-ever season in the top flight.
After nine games, they sat in third ahead of European and English champions Man Utd after accumulating 20 points and beating the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur on their own patches.
| Hull City in the top flight | League finish |
|---|---|
| 2008/09 | 17th |
| 2009/10 | 19th (relegation) |
| 2013/14 | 16th |
| 2014/15 | 18th (relegation) |
| 2016/17 | 18th (relegation) |
The wheels came off spectacularly almost right away with just two more wins coming from their remaining 29 league games. Brown’s infamous half-time team talk on the pitch at the Etihad Stadium was the defining image of the downturn.
They stayed up by the skin of their teeth, providing the ultimate warning to the current Tigers. At some point, every promoted side who starts on fire is worked out (or taken more seriously) and it’s vital to get as many points as possible while the going is good.
History is on Hull’s side, as is the current state of Fulham, among others. Just the 35 games to go for Jakirovic and co. Up next? Xabi Alonso’s billion-pound Blues at Stamford Bridge. Sunderland won there last season. What odds of a repeat?