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Hull City lost 1-0 at Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday 7 November, a narrow defeat. Hull are 13th on 11 points. Hull's league record is two wins, five draws and three defeats, which describes a side that is hard to beat and rarely wins. Mohamed Belloumi leads the scoring with three goals and two assists in all competitions, and Oliver McBurnie has two goals and two assists. Hull have scored 11 league goals and conceded 11 this season, a level goal difference. Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy, both defenders, have one goal each in all competitions, so the scoring comes from more than the forwards. The next fixture is Hull City v Brighton & Hove Albion at the MKM Stadium on Sunday 22 November, 9:00 am ET.
Hull City lost 1-0 at Arsenal on Saturday 7 November, and the home draws before it are the bigger story. At the MKM Stadium they drew 1-1 with Brentford on 25 October and 2-2 with Ipswich Town on 31 October, and each visitor left with a point. Hull are 13th on 11 points. They have won two, drawn five and lost three of their ten league games, with 11 goals scored and 11 conceded. Mohamed Belloumi leads the scoring with 3 goals in all competitions, and Oliver McBurnie has 2 goals and 2 assists. Turning draws into wins is the step that lifts a side in the middle of the table. The next chance comes on Sunday 22 November, 9:00 am ET, when Brighton & Hove Albion visit the MKM Stadium after the international break.
Hull go into the international break 13th on 11 points with a habit that has kept them out of trouble without yet winning them anything: they have no win in their last five league games. A 1-1 draw at home to Brentford on Sunday 25 October and a 2-2 draw at home to Ipswich on Saturday 31 October came before Saturday 7 November's 1-0 defeat by leaders Arsenal at the Emirates. Two wins, five draws and three defeats make up a record that sits three points above 18th place. Next is second-placed Brighton at the MKM Stadium on Sunday 22 November, kick-off 9:00 AM ET, a fixture that will show whether Hull's drawing habit can hold against the league's highest-scoring side, with 26 goals in 10 games.
Hull City lost 1-0 at Arsenal on Saturday 7 November, going down to the Premier League leaders at the Emirates Stadium in a game decided by a single goal. It followed two home draws in the previous fortnight, 2-2 with Ipswich Town on 31 October and 1-1 with Brentford on 25 October, both at the MKM Stadium, so Hull have now gone without a win in each of their last five league games. They sit 13th on 11 points from 10 matches, clear of the bottom three and well placed to reflect on a season in which they have been hard to beat without finding a way to win often. The next chance to change that comes at home on Sunday 22 November, when third-placed Brighton & Hove Albion visit the MKM Stadium at 09:00 ET.
Hull City's home form has settled into a recognisable pattern, and Saturday asks whether any of it travels. They drew 2-2 with Ipswich Town at The MKM Stadium on Saturday 31 October, the third home league game on record to end level after a 1-1 with Brentford on 25 October and a 2-2 with Everton on 11 October, which is the shape of a side that is hard to beat in its own ground without yet learning how to turn a level game into a win. Those draws have kept them 11th on 11 points, inside a crowded middle of the table where a single result moves a club several places. Next comes the hardest away assignment in the division: Arsenal, the league leaders, at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday 7 November, kickoff 10:00 AM ET, against the side that has conceded fewer goals than anyone.
Hull City have drawn five of their nine Premier League matches, and Saturday's 2-2 with Ipswich Town at the MKM Stadium was that pattern again, another point taken without a result that moves the table. The draw followed a 1-1 with Brentford at home and a 1-0 defeat at Fulham, which leaves Hull four league games without a win since a 2-2 with Everton opened the sequence. They sit 11th on 11 points, level with Leeds United, Newcastle United and Ipswich, and the selection still leans on Mohamed Belloumi, whose three goals and two assists lead the squad, with Oliver McBurnie on two and two. Saturday's trip to the Emirates Stadium is the hardest available test of the shape, against an Arsenal side top on 24 points that has conceded only five goals in nine matches.
Hull City have played the Premier League with a shape that is hard to beat and hard to win with, and their home record shows it. Saturday's 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town at the MKM Stadium was Hull's third straight home draw, after 1-1 with Brentford and 2-2 with Everton. The only league defeat in that spell came at Fulham, 1-0 on October 17. Hull sit 11th on 11 points from nine matches, with two wins, five draws and two defeats, having scored 11 and conceded ten. Mohamed Belloumi and Oliver McBurnie lead the attack, with Kieran Dowell in midfield and Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy at the back. Next is the hardest test on the fixture list: a trip to league leaders Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, where Hull's draw-heavy shape meets the division's best defence.
Tim Iroegbunam's goal four days ago — the equaliser that pulled Hull City level against Ipswich Town before Julio Enciso's 74th-minute strike restored Ipswich's lead — left the travelling and home faithful with that particular ache of watching a lead slip. The 2-2 home draw with Ipswich Town at The MKM Stadium is the third time in Hull's last three games they have failed to win, a run of one loss and two draws that yields one point from a possible nine. That is the constraint running through everything right now. Oliver McBurnie, whose assist set up Iroegbunam and who then scored Hull's second himself, carries four direct goal contributions this season across Premier League and Carabao Cup — but moments of individual quality have not yet been enough to hold results. Per Hull Live, Eliot Matazo continues his recovery from an ACL injury, a reminder of how thin the margins are for a squad still finding its Premier League footing. Saturday's trip to Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal sit top on 24 points from nine games, is the next test of what this group believes about itself.
# Hull draw with Ipswich and face league-leading Arsenal next
Hull City remain difficult to beat but have struggled to turn recent Premier League matches into wins. Saturday's 2-2 home draw with Ipswich Town on October 31 followed a 1-1 home draw with Brentford on October 25. Hull have not won any of their five most recent league fixtures, and their next assignment is away to leaders Arsenal on Saturday, November 7.
The five-match sequence contains three draws and two defeats. Hull lost 1-0 away to Fulham on October 17, drew 2-2 at home to Everton on October 11 and lost 2-1 away to Newcastle United on September 19. The recent draws have kept points coming in, but not at the rate needed to climb significantly.
Hull are 11th in the Premier League with 11 points from nine matches, having won two, drawn five and lost two. Their 11 league goals scored and ten conceded give them a plus-one goal difference. The five draws are central to that record: Hull have avoided defeat in seven of nine games but won only twice.
Mohamed Belloumi has three goals and two assists in ten appearances across all competitions. Oliver McBurnie has two goals and two assists, while defenders Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy have one goal each. Kieran Dowell has one goal in the figures.
The next opponent poses a major challenge. Arsenal have 24 points from nine league games, with eight wins and one defeat. They have conceded only five goals, the lowest total among the leading Premier League clubs in the current table. Hull travel to the Emirates Stadium on November 7 with a 13-point gap to the leaders.
Kick-off against Arsenal is at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, November 7. Their league record reads two wins, five draws and two defeats from 9 matches, with 11 scored and 10 conceded for a goal difference of +1.
The immediate task is not simply to remain competitive. Hull have already shown they can collect draws against Brentford, Everton and Ipswich. Against Arsenal, they will need to find a way to turn that resilience into a result that adds more than one point, while facing a side with a formidable defensive record.
Hull City drew 2-2 at home with Ipswich Town on Saturday, the 2-2 home draw with Ipswich Town at The MKM Stadium making it two draws in a row after the 1-1 home draw with Brentford a week earlier. Before that came the 0-1 away loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage, so Hull are without a win in three, with 3 goals scored and 4 conceded across those games.
The season picture is steadier than that run suggests. Hull are tenth in the Premier League with 11 points from 2 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses and a goal difference of +1, and five draws in nine games show a side that is hard to beat but struggling to finish teams off. Mohamed Belloumi leads the club with 3 goals and 2 assists in 9 appearances; nobody else has more than one goal, with Oliver McBurnie, Semi Ajayi, Nobel Mendy and Kieran Dowell all on 1.
Next is the hardest trip on the calendar: Arsenal away at Emirates Stadium on Saturday 7 November. Arsenal are second with 21 points and have conceded only 5 goals in eight league games, so Hull's thin scoring list will be tested against the tightest defence they have faced.
Oliver McBurnie's penalty in the 24th minute gave Hull City a lead they could not hold — Brentford's Dango Ouattara levelled before the hour was out, and the 1-1 home draw at The MKM Stadium four days ago is the cleanest summary of where this squad sits right now. Hull City win at home, on balance, against a side level on points: that is the call for Saturday's visit of Ipswich Town, though narrowly, and with the caveat that this team has not won in three attempts across the recent-form window.
The role that shaped this squad — a striker reliable enough to hold the line when the equaliser arrives — remains only partly filled. McBurnie has one goal and one assist across the Premier League and Carabao Cup this season; Mohamed Belloumi, with three goals and two assists in nine appearances, carries the heavier load. Hull Live reported on 23 October that the club received a double injury boost, with updates on Ilias Ansah and Charlie Hughes emerging at the same time; Yahoo reported on 21 October that a significant injury concern over a Hull City striker has since been allayed. Neither outlet stated which role returns first, but the shape of Saturday's selection depends on it — a front line with Belloumi available and McBurnie fit is a different proposition from one that must improvise. Hull City hold tenth, level on points with Ipswich at ten apiece but two places above them, and Saturday settles whether that gap becomes meaningful or collapses entirely.
Hull City have drawn three of their last four at The MKM Stadium, and that shape — deep, organised, difficult to beat at home — is precisely what Saturday's visit from Ipswich Town will test again. The 1-1 home draw with Brentford three days ago extended the unbeaten home record, but it did so in the same register as the 2-2 with Everton seventeen days before: a lead established, then surrendered, with Brentford's Dango Ouattara levelling in the 63rd minute after Oliver McBurnie's penalty had given Hull the advantage. Ten points from eight games places Hull level with both Everton and Ipswich Town, though two places and a goal-difference advantage separate them from their visitors on Saturday. Ipswich arrive having conceded 16 goals in eight games, and that number is the most relevant one Hull's front line — Mohamed Belloumi's three goals and two assists leading the way — will carry into the fixture; the question of whether Hull can convert that opening into a first home win, rather than another draw, is the same role the last four Saturdays have left unfilled.
Oliver McBurnie's penalty in the 24th minute gave Hull City the lead they needed to test an idea Jakirović has been building around all season — that a compact, hard-to-break side can take points from top-half opposition at The MKM Stadium. Dango Ouattara's equaliser for Brentford in the 63rd minute settled the answer: the 1-1 home draw with Brentford added one more point to a tally that now sits at 10 from eight games, level with both Everton and Ipswich Town, two places below. That points-level cluster is the pressure the draw creates, because Ipswich Town arrive at The MKM Stadium on Saturday sitting 12th with a goal difference of -4 — a side that has conceded 16 goals in eight games — and Hull cannot afford to treat this as a comfortable home assignment when goal difference may yet separate teams locked on identical totals. Per Yahoo Sports, an ex-refs chief has since weighed in on an Aaron Hickey red card incident from Sunday's match, a decision that shapes what selection Jakirović can call on at the weekend; the role that incident leaves open is the one Saturday's fixture will force him to fill.
Hull City's attacking role at the top of the pitch is the question Brentford will force into the open this afternoon. Per Hull Live, a double injury boost has arrived ahead of kick-off, and with selection decisions around Tim Iroegbunam and Hidemasa Morita noted by Yahoo, Jakirović has more options to shape his midfield than the recent fixtures suggested. The Playbook predicts a Hull City draw — on balance, the personnel news is encouraging but the 0-1 away loss to Fulham eight days ago, and a run of one draw and two losses in the three most recent results, points to a side that is finding ways to stay in games without finding the decisive one. Mohamed Belloumi leads the Hull scorers on three goals this season across the Premier League and Carabao Cup, and the role he fills — as the one forward capable of creating and converting — sits against a Brentford side at seventh on 10 points with a goal difference of five, arriving at The MKM Stadium with the sharper attacking return across their seven games. One point behind and four places below Brentford, Hull will need Belloumi's role to be answered by others in the final third if they are to take anything from an afternoon that will settle whether this squad can compete against top-half opposition at home.
Hull City sit 9th in the league — in the bottom half with 9 points from 7 games — a 2W 3D 2L record that puts them on a 29% win rate. A +1 goal difference is functional — neither a strength nor a concern.
A defeat in the last outing will have sharpened focus in training.
The next fixture comes at home against Brentford in the 2026 27 English Premier League. On current form, maintaining a clean sheet will be central to the game plan — the defensive metrics across the season show that results largely follow the defensive performance rather than individual attacking brilliance.
Weekend Preview: The next fixture comes at home against Brentford (2026-10-25, 2026 27 English Premier League). On current form — L D L in the last three — a response is needed after a difficult recent run.
The supporters who made the trip to Craven Cottage five days ago watched Hull City drop to a 0-1 away loss to Fulham — a goal from Alex Iwobi on 33 minutes, a result that left no margin for debate. One point from three games is the form that matters now, not the season's opening promise. Per Hull Live, a significant injury concern has emerged around one of the club's strikers, which lands hardest on a squad that has Mohamed Belloumi carrying five combined goals and assists in the Premier League and Carabao Cup — and very little behind him when that changes. Brentford arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday sitting sixth on 10 points, one ahead of Hull City in ninth, with 13 goals scored across seven games; they are the kind of side that punishes a depleted forward line. The concrete next test is whether Hull City's home supporters — who gave the club a draw against Everton a fortnight ago — see a team capable of turning one-point weeks into three.
Robinio Vaz's availability is the shape Hull City are carrying into Sunday's home fixture against Brentford, and the 0-1 away loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage has sharpened what his absence means. Per Hull Live, the club faces an anxious wait over Vaz's injury, which removes one of the options Jakirović had been working with in the wide areas — and that matters against a Brentford side sitting sixth on 10 points from seven games, one point and three places above Hull in the table. Mohamed Belloumi remains the clearest creative threat on the roster, with three goals and two assists across all tracked competitions this season, but the wider picture is a squad that the Yorkshire Post reported on 15 October is already managing continued injury concerns. Hull arrive at The MKM Stadium on one point from their last three games — one draw, two defeats — and the selection decision Jakirović faces this weekend will tell us whether the Vaz role can be redistributed within the current group, or whether the squad's depth is the constraint the fixture will expose.
The 0-1 away loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage has sharpened a roster problem Jakirović was managing before the fixture existed. Per Hull Live, the club faces an anxious wait over Robinio Vaz's injury — and Vaz was already the player whose absence this paper noted yesterday as the role Brentford's back line would be left to ignore. That role, a direct forward capable of operating in compressed space, sits at the centre of Hull's attacking decisions now, with Mohamed Belloumi carrying three goals and two assists in eight appearances this season across the Premier League and Carabao Cup and no other forward in the squad recording more than one goal. Brentford arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday sitting sixth on 10 points — one ahead of Hull's nine — and with 13 goals scored from seven games, which means Jakirović's selection problem is not just about Hull's attack; it is about whether the squad depth exists to absorb an injury and still name a shape that punishes a Brentford side still searching for its first clean sheet. The Vaz question is the one Sunday settles.
Robinio Vaz was Hull City's most direct route past a defensive block — the role his injury now leaves open is the one Brentford's back line will be least troubled by if it goes unfilled. The 0-1 away loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage, settled by Alex Iwobi's 33rd-minute strike, confirmed what the week before it had quietly arranged: Hull arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday with fewer attacking options than the fixture demands, and per Hull Live, Jakirović is facing an anxious wait over the extent of Vaz's injury. Mohamed Belloumi's three goals and two assists across eight appearances make him the sharpest instrument Jakirović has in the final third, and the selection decision now is whether the squad's depth — the Yorkshire Post noted injury concerns continuing into this week — can cover the role Vaz held without changing the shape that earned Hull nine points from seven games. Brentford sit one point and three places above Hull in the table; how that gap moves on Sunday will say something about whether the squad was built for exactly this kind of moment.
Alex Iwobi's 33rd-minute strike settled the 0-1 away loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage, with Ryan Sessegnon's stoppage-time red card arriving too late to matter. Hull City now sit ninth on nine points — level with Ipswich Town below them and Leeds United above, one point behind sixth-placed Brentford — after back-to-back away defeats that have trimmed their three-result window to one draw and two losses, conceding five and scoring three. The timing is pointed: Brentford arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday 25 October carrying 13 goals scored and a goal difference of five from seven games, the kind of attacking volume that will stretch a back line that has just shipped four goals across two road trips. Mohamed Belloumi, Hull's most productive presence with three goals and two assists across all tracked competitions, is the clearest route back into the game — but Brentford's form means Jakirović will need more than one contributor to keep ninth place intact.
Hull City carry a two-man injury concern into Saturday, and per Hull Live the club has confirmed setbacks for a pair of players alongside an update on Mohamed-Ali Cho — a name who features on the current roster but whose involvement at Craven Cottage now sits in doubt. The Yorkshire Post reported separately on 15 October that Hull City's injury situation continues to deepen, which means the selection Jakirović fields against Fulham may be shaped less by preference than by availability. On balance, expect Hull City to take at least a point from Craven Cottage — Fulham sit 20th on two points from six games, with a goal difference of minus four, and have won nothing in this league campaign yet. The 2-2 home draw with Everton at The MKM Stadium last Sunday — where Mohamed Belloumi's second equaliser arrived in the 74th minute through an Elliot Stroud assist, and Joe Gelhardt had put Hull level in the 48th — demonstrated that this squad can manufacture goals when the role is filled; Belloumi now has three goals and two assists across the Premier League and Carabao Cup, and that output matters most when the selection around him is unsettled. Hull have not beaten Fulham at home in their four most recent meetings, losing three of the last four including a 0-2 defeat at The MKM Stadium in January 2023, but Saturday is away, and the one anomaly in that run was the 3-0 victory on the road on 2 November 2019. Fulham's form is the condition that makes a Hull point genuinely plausible; whether Jakirović can name a front line fit enough to press it is what Saturday will settle.
Jakirović's squad carries a role that the table has not yet forced into the open — a finisher who can operate in tight space when the scoreline demands it, not just when the game is level. The 2-2 home draw with Everton at The MKM Stadium made that visible: Joe Gelhardt's opener and Mohamed Belloumi's equaliser both arrived after Hull had conceded, which means two of Hull's five goals across the recent three-game window came while chasing the game rather than protecting one. Per Hull Live, two players suffered injury setbacks this week, with an update also emerging on Mohamed-Ali Cho — so the selection Jakirović names at Craven Cottage on Saturday will tell us whether the squad depth that Hull Live reported as a boost ahead of the Everton fixture has held, or whether the injuries have trimmed it again. Belloumi's five goal contributions across all tracked competitions this season make him the one player whose involvement or absence reshapes what Hull can do in the final third — and Fulham, who have conceded ten goals in six games, sit 20th and offer the kind of space that suits an attacker working in open territory. The role that needs filling at Craven Cottage is not Belloumi's; it is the player alongside him who can hold shape when Hull inevitably spend periods without the ball.
Hull City's defensive line has carried the weight of Sergej Jakirović's season since August, and Sunday's 2-2 home draw with Everton at The MKM Stadium settled nothing about whether it can hold. Mohamed Belloumi — two goals and two assists across both the Premier League and Carabao Cup — got Hull level twice, but the draw itself confirmed a pattern Jakirović has not yet broken: in three of his last three completed fixtures, this side has conceded at least twice. This paper predicted a narrow home win yesterday, and it missed; the result was the draw, and the gap between prediction and outcome matters because it points at the same shape the back line keeps producing regardless of opponent quality. Hull Live reported on 12 October that two players have suffered injury setbacks, with an update emerging on Mohamed-Ali Cho specifically — Cho had contributed a goal across five appearances, so the selection decision Jakirović faces into Saturday's trip to Craven Cottage is real, not precautionary. Fulham arrive at the bottom of the table — zero wins from six, two points, a goal difference of minus four — and on paper Saturday is the clearest moment Hull have had to test whether 9 points from six games reflects a floor or a ceiling. Whether the defensive role settles into something more reliable is the question Saturday's result will answer.
Sergej Jakirović has kept two clean sheets in five league games and conceded in each of the other three — the back line has been the story all season, and Sunday's home fixture against Everton arrives as the clearest test yet of whether that shape holds under pressure. Hull City win this one: on balance, a narrow home win, with Mohamed Belloumi the most likely source of the decisive contribution.
Per Yahoo Sports and Yahoo, Hull come into the match with a significant selection boost, a host of players returning after the international window — including at least one with a prior Everton connection — which gives Jakirović options he did not have at St. James' Park. Hull Live reported that the club have handled the break unusually well by Premier League standards, resisting the usual toll the window takes on squad availability. The returns matter because Everton, sitting eighth on nine points from five unbeaten games, have conceded only three goals all season — a side that has earned more than it has been forced to defend. Hull have scored just three goals across their last three fixtures, a rate that makes Belloumi's two goals and two assists in six appearances this term the most important attacking thread Jakirović has to pull. The condition the opening named — whether this back line can hold — will be settled by how Everton's unbeaten shape responds to a Hull side finally at full strength at The MKM Stadium.
Hull City have kept a clean sheet in one of their five league games and conceded in each of the other four, which means the settled defensive shape Sergej Jakirović needs tomorrow is exactly the condition that has been most difficult to guarantee. Per Hull Live, a host of players return for the Everton fixture — described as a major boost — and that availability shifts the selection decision from triage to genuine choice. The Playbook expects Hull City to win at The MKM Stadium on Sunday. Mohamed Belloumi, the club's most productive attacking presence this season with two goals and two assists across all tracked competitions, becomes more dangerous when Jakirović can build around a stable back line rather than improvise one; the question is whether the returning bodies are ready to hold a shape against an Everton side that arrives unbeaten across five games, with nine points and a positive goal difference of three. Hull Live also reports that Hull bucked the wider Premier League trend during the international window, which suggests the squad returns in better condition than most. Everton's unbeaten record makes a draw the likeliest single outcome, but home advantage and the fitness boost tip the balance — narrowly — toward a Hull City win that would pull them level on points with the visitors.
Hull City have built their points on a side that surrenders the ball, 31.6 percent possession against Everton's 43.0, and that shape needs a settled goalkeeper and a defence that stays upright to work. Sunday tests it. BBC reports Jack Butland is nearing a return from injury, while LiveScore's early injury news lists five ruled out and five doubts, so the selection decision is forced rather than chosen. The constraint is thin possession; the decision against it is leaning on a low-possession side's counter, and the fit is tidy, since Mohamed Belloumi's 2 goals and 2 assists in six appearances give Hull a runner who needs little of the ball. The trade-off is volume: Hull average 3.80 shots on target a game against Everton's 4.60, and the second-half runs of Mohamed-Ali Cho do not close that gap alone. Hull Live describes a major injury boost, though what it covers is not established here. The Playbook expects Hull to take a point rather than three: a draw at The MKM Stadium, since Everton concede 0.60 a game and Hull score 1.20. Whether Butland starts will settle how much of that shape survives.
Eight points from those five sit eighth, and Everton, seventh on nine points after a 2-2-3 spread of results with no losses, are the first opponent to show the same economy back. Both sides score 1.20 a game. The gap is conceded goals, 0.80 against 0.60, and shots on target, 3.80 against 4.60, which means Sunday at The MKM Stadium rewards whoever wastes less. Mohamed Belloumi's two goals and two assists in six appearances across the Premier League and Carabao Cup carry the attack, and no other forward is above one goal, so a single counter-attacking outlet is doing the work of a front line. Hull Live reports Jack Butland nearing a return, per BBC, which would settle the goalkeeping selection behind a defence that has to keep conceding under a goal a game. The Everton game will settle whether Hull's low-possession shape can hold a standing against a side of the same size.
Eight points from five games is a platform, but the role that needs filling before Sunday is less about the attacking third and more about what happens when Jakirović's side does not have the ball.
Hull Live reported this week that Hull City received a significant injury boost ahead of the Everton fixture, which matters precisely because the season-long numbers show where the pressure accumulates: 0.80 goals conceded per game across five Premier League matches is a figure that flatters the underlying shape, given that the three-game window stretching from the 0-0 home draw with Aston Villa through the 1-2 away loss at St. James' Park produced four conceded against three scored. Mohamed Belloumi leads the scoring return with two goals and two assists across all competitions in the sample, but the selection decision that Sunday's home fixture at The MKM Stadium will test is whether the roster depth exists to run the same compact shape against an Everton side that has not lost in five league games, concedes 0.60 goals per game, and averages 43.0% possession — 11.4 percentage points more than Hull City's own average. That gap in possession share is the condition this squad was built to absorb; the next fixture is the one that confirms whether it can absorb it at home, too.
Hull City's 31.6% average possession this season is not a flaw in the plan — it is the plan. Jakirović's side sits in a compact shape, invites pressure, and looks to win the ball through tackles and interceptions rather than sustaining it; across five Premier League games they average 17.20 tackles and 8.60 interceptions per match, numbers that only make sense if the shape is disciplined enough to make the second ball count. The cost of that decision shows up in the attacking return: 3.80 shots on target per game, a figure that asks Mohamed Belloumi — two goals and two assists across all competitions in six appearances — to convert the rare chances a low-possession side creates, rather than generating volume. Against Everton on Sunday that tension arrives in a specific form, because Everton carry more of the ball (43.0% possession, against Hull's 31.6%), defend more aggressively off the ball (9.80 interceptions per game against Hull's 8.60), and have yet to lose in five league fixtures. Whether Jakirović's compact shape can continue to concede at 0.80 goals per game while scoring at 1.20 — and whether Belloumi can keep converting at the rate that makes those numbers work — is the condition Sunday's home fixture will test.
Hull City's 31.6% average possession this season frames the problem before Sunday's kickoff: Jakirović's side is built to defend a compact shape and strike on the counter, a role that demands clean sheets or at least controlled concession, and the last three games have produced four goals against. The 2-2 away draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge suggested the shape could hold against elite opposition, but the 1-2 away loss to Newcastle United at St. James' Park showed the cost when it cannot — Hull were outscored across a three-game window that returned zero wins, two draws, and a goal difference of minus one. Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday having conceded only three goals across five Premier League games and with an unbeaten record, which means Jakirović's low-possession shape will be tested not by a side that can be caught in transition, but by one patient enough to wait it out. Mohamed Belloumi's two goals and two assists across all competitions this season are the clearest attacking mechanism Hull possess, and Sunday's selection decision — how much of the shape is built around protecting him versus releasing him — will tell us whether the compact role is still the club's genuine plan or simply its current ceiling.
Hull City's season so far has been built on containment — low possession, narrow margins, results decided by what the opposition cannot quite create rather than what Hull themselves generate. Mohamed Belloumi's two goals and two assists across six appearances represent the clearest attacking thread in Sergej Jakirović's side, and the week's off-field news — per BBC Sport, Lucas Gourna-Douath became the second Hull City player in three weeks to crash near the club's training ground on Millhouse Woods Lane, following Sorba Thomas's incident in September — is a distraction the squad does not need at a moment when the table is offering something real. Eight points from five games, eighth in the Premier League, with a goal difference of plus two: that is a side keeping its shape without yet knowing whether the shape can stretch. The three-game run that produced no wins, three goals scored, four conceded, and a goal difference of minus one did not collapse the season, but it did confirm that Jakirović's side concede when the opponent has enough quality to be patient. Sunday 11 October against Everton at The MKM Stadium — a side yet to lose in five league games, sitting seventh on nine points with six scored and three conceded — will test whether the containment holds when the pressure is applied by a team in form rather than a one-off opponent.
Eight points from five Premier League games is a foundation Hull City can work with, but Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday 11 October carrying nine points from five games without a defeat — and the shape Jakirović's side has been asked to play into that contest matters more than the single-point gap between the clubs. Hull have averaged 31.6% possession across the season, the consequence of which is that Mohamed Belloumi, the side's most productive player with two goals and two assists across Premier League and Carabao Cup appearances, is frequently asked to create from cramped space rather than open ground. Everton, averaging 43.0% possession with only three goals conceded in five games, are built to let opponents have the ball in their own half and compress the final third — which is precisely the condition that has cost Hull three of their last four goals conceded. Per BBC Sport, a road safety review near the club's training ground is now under way following crashes involving Lucas Gourna-Douath and Sorba Thomas in the same three-week stretch, an off-field distraction Jakirović will be managing alongside the selection decisions Sunday demands. Whether Belloumi can find the same angles against a defence that has conceded 0.60 goals per game is the role this fixture will decide.
Hull City are averaging 31.6% possession across five Premier League games this season — the lowest among the sides measured — and that number is not a symptom of a bad spell but the operating principle of the system Sergej Jakirović has chosen. Everton, who visit The MKM Stadium on Sunday 11 October, sit on 43.0% possession themselves, which means Hull will almost certainly be the side without the ball for long stretches again, and the question of whether the shape is equipped for that role is the one this season has been asking from the start. The mechanism is familiar: low block, concentrated tackling — 17.20 per game — and interceptions at 8.60, designed to absorb pressure and transition quickly into the final third. Mohamed Belloumi's two goals and two assists are the most visible expression of how that transition is meant to pay off, with the forwards expected to convert narrow windows rather than sustained spells of possession. Where the shape has leaked is in conceding 0.80 goals per game against Everton's 0.60, a gap that matters less in isolation than in its consequence: Hull's goals-for rate of 1.20 matches Everton's exactly, so the margin that separates the two sides in the table is entirely defensive. How Jakirović asks his back four to hold shape against an Everton attack that has scored six in five — while giving away territory deliberately — is the decision Sunday 11 October will settle.
Eight players unavailable, per themag.co.uk, and now Hull Live reports both Ilyas Ansah and Brooke Norton-Cuffy have joined the treatment room ahead of Sunday 11 October — that is the reality Sergej Jakirović is managing as Hull City prepare to host Everton at The MKM Stadium. The supporters who trust in this project need to sit with that number for a moment: not because injury is unusual, but because the three-game window that produced zero wins, 3 goals scored, and 4 conceded has happened against squads with far more depth to absorb a crisis like this. Everton arrive unbeaten through five league games — nine points from five, having conceded only 3 all season — and they will find a home side averaging 31.6% possession this term, which means Hull live almost entirely on the counter and on set pieces. Mohamed Belloumi's 2 goals and 2 assists are the attacking spine holding this together. Whether that spine is enough, with a threadbare squad and Everton's composure unbroken, is the question Sunday answers.
The supporters who packed their travel bags for three away days in eleven days asked for a lot — and Hull City's 3 goals scored against 5 conceded across that window confirmed what the numbers were always going to say. Short. Now Sergej Jakirović has twelve days before Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday 11 October, and the question sitting in the stands is whether that gap is enough to answer what the recent fixtures exposed.
Hull City's 31.6% possession average in the Premier League this season tells the story plainly: Jakirović's side is built to work without the ball, to win it back through tackles and interceptions rather than control territory. Against an Everton side sitting on 43.0% possession with 9.80 interceptions per game themselves, that low-block identity faces a genuine test of trust. Per Hull Live, Brooke Norton-Cuffy's injury has already been confirmed, and Ilyas Ansah's status has ruled out any reunion story for Sunday. Mohamed Belloumi — 2 goals and 2 assists this season — is the one creative thread that holds the shape together when Hull City are forced to absorb and counter. If the back four holds and Belloumi finds space in transition, The MKM gives this a different texture than the road did.
The supporters who travelled to St. James' Park three weeks ago, and to Stamford Bridge the week before, have now absorbed five away fixtures in Hull City's opening run — and the results, taken together, ask something of them that league tables do not capture. A point from the 2-2 away draw with Chelsea sits alongside the 1-2 away loss to Newcastle United and the 0-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Sunderland; across those three games, Hull conceded five and scored three. Sergej Jakirović's side hold eight points from five Premier League matches, which keeps them in the picture, but per Hull Live, Brooke Norton-Cuffy's injury has already been confirmed as a blow, and the same outlet has reported on both Kieran Dowell and Óscar Zambrano's squad status — Dowell having contributed a goal this season, which makes that uncertainty matter. Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday 11 October unbeaten in five, on nine points, with a goal difference of plus three. The identity of this Hull side — resilient enough to draw at Stamford Bridge, thin enough to feel every absence — faces its first home examination that will tell supporters whether trust in this project is being earned or merely deferred.
Three away fixtures inside eleven days exposed something structural about Hull City's current squad — and the 1-2 away loss to Newcastle United at St. James' Park, which this paper opened on yesterday, now sits at the far end of a run that produced no wins, three goals scored, and five conceded. That is the congestion window closed. What it leaves behind is a roster question Sergej Jakirović cannot defer: per Hull Live, Brooke Norton-Cuffy's injury has been confirmed, Jack Butland and Darko Gyabi are carrying fitness concerns, and Hull Live also reports that the statuses of Kieran Dowell and Óscar Zambrano — Dowell has contributed one goal so far across Premier League and Carabao Cup — have been addressed by Jakirović alongside a loan suggestion, which indicates the squad shape is still being settled rather than deployed. Mohamed Belloumi's two goals and two assists across those same competitions make him the clearest attacking decision the manager has, but the depth around him narrows when absences compound. Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium on Sunday 11 October unbeaten through five matches, and how many of those roles Jakirović can fill is the condition that opening at home will test.
Hull City's injury list has grown long enough to become a roster problem rather than a bad-luck stretch, and the 1-2 away loss to Newcastle United has arrived at precisely the moment the squad needs depth it may not have. Per hulldailymail.co.uk, Jack Butland and Darko Gyabi are carrying injury concerns, Brooke Norton-Cuffy has been confirmed out, and the overall picture as of late September points toward a depleted group heading into an international break. The structural consequence is this: a side already averaging 31.6% possession in the Premier League — the lowest in this paper's recent coverage, and a deliberate shape rather than an accident — cannot absorb absences across the wide areas and midfield without that shape becoming a liability. Mohamed Belloumi leads the scoring returns with two goals and two assists across the Premier League and Carabao Cup this season, which makes his availability the single most consequential selection question Sergej Jakirović faces before Sunday 11 October, when Everton arrive at The MKM Stadium unbeaten in five league games and sitting one point above Hull in the table.
Hull City's 31.6% average Premier League possession this season is not an accident of personnel — it is a structural decision, and the 1-2 away loss to Newcastle United at St. James' Park is the sharpest test yet of whether that decision holds under pressure. Sergej Jakirović has built a side designed to cede the ball and work in transition, and across five Premier League matches that shape has produced a goals-scored average of 1.20 per game against a conceded average of 0.80 — numbers that read, on balance, as a functional trade-off rather than a failing. The complication is at the edges: per Hull Live, Jack Butland and Darko Gyabi are both carrying injuries, and Yahoo reports that Brooke Norton-Cuffy's availability has been confirmed as a blow, which means the specific roles that make a low-possession structure viable — defensive cover wide, ball-retention in midfield — are under strain precisely when the squad faces Sunday's home fixture against Everton. Mohamed Belloumi's two Premier League and Carabao Cup goals and two assists make him the one player whose individual output consistently justifies the shape from the front; whether the structure around him is intact enough to function at the MKM Stadium is the thing Sunday settles.
Hull City sit 8th in the league with 8 points from 5 games — a 2W 2D 1L record that puts them on a 40% win rate. A +2 goal difference is functional — neither a strength nor a concern.
A defeat in the last outing will have sharpened focus in training.
The next fixture comes at home against Everton in the 2026 27 English Premier League. On current form, maintaining a clean sheet will be central to the game plan — the defensive metrics across the season show that results largely follow the defensive performance rather than individual attacking brilliance.
Stats Deep Dive: 1.2 goals scored per game | 0.8 conceded per game | 2W 2D 1L from 5 games. Currently 7 points off top spot with 25 games remaining. Win rate: 40% | Points per game: 1.6.
Hull City sit eighth in the Premier League on eight points from five games — a respectable return built almost entirely on the season's opening stretch. The verified three-game window tells a tighter story: one win, two draws and one loss in those early fixtures have given way to a run of zero wins, two draws and one loss across the most recent three, with three goals scored and four conceded in that span. Mohamed Belloumi leads the attacking return with two goals and two assists across the Premier League and Carabao Cup, but the concentration of output in one player is a structural note worth watching. That concern is compounded, per Hull Live, by a mounting injury list — Nobel Mendy, Charlie Hughes, Matt Targett and Hidemasa Morita were all flagged for updates in mid-September, and Brooke Norton-Cuffy was subsequently confirmed unavailable. Hull's possession figure of 31.6% across the season so far is the plainest description of how Sergej Jakirović's side has operated: low block, limited ball, survival on transitions. Sunday's home fixture against Everton — unbeaten in five, with nine points and a goal difference of plus three — will show whether that approach holds against a side that has kept the ball meaningfully more and conceded only three times all season.