Hull City draw at Chelsea to extend unbeaten Premier League start

Hull CityManchester CityPremier League · England2nd POS23–9–6 W-D-L drew 2-2 at ChelseaChelseaEngland on Saturday night, extending their unbeaten start to the Premier LeaguePremier LeagueEngland5 CLUBS95 MATCHES season to four matches and taking them to eight points. The result at Stamford Bridge keeps a newly promoted side in the top four in mid-September, with 34 games still to come.

The run comprises wins over Manchester UnitedManchester UnitedPremier League · England3rd POS20–11–7 W-D-L and Coventry and draws with Aston VillaAston VillaEngland and Chelsea. It is a sequence of results that virtually nobody forecast three weeks before the season began.

2025/26

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CLUBS

5

MATCHES

95

GOALS

336

LEADER

Arsenal

Season 2025/26

How Hull reached the Premier League

philosophyfootball · CC BY 2.0

The backdrop is unusually compressed. Sixteen months ago, Hull avoided relegation to League One on goal difference. Four months ago, they won the Championship play-off final at Wembley, where Oli McBurnie scored in the last minute.

Promotion brought little expectation with it. Pre-season predictions, published three weeks before the campaign opened, had Hull tipped to threaten Derby County's record for the lowest points tally in a Premier League season.

What the start does and does not prove

SonoGrazy · CC BY-SA 4.0

Few believed the qualities that produced that Championship run could keep Hull in the top flight. Four matches have not settled the argument. Hull will not be trading places with ArsenalArsenalPremier League · England1st POS26–7–5 W-D-L or Manchester City by the end of May, and a September table says little about a 38-game season.

One detail is genuinely unsettled: their placing. Hull's position after the Chelsea draw is given as third, while their start is also described as fourth. The eight points and the four-game unbeaten run are the same either way. The exact placing is not.

What Hull have not settled

The club has not stated a target for the season, and nothing in four games establishes how the squad will hold up across 34 more. The question that follows Hull into the autumn is whether the start reflects a side capable of staying clear of trouble or something more durable.

The next fixture will give the first indication. Until then, the achievement stands on its own: a team that needed a last-minute goal at Wembley in May and a goal-difference escape sixteen months ago is unbeaten in the Premier League in September.