Aston Villa picked up their first Premier League point of the season, but were left to rue missed chances in their 0-0 draw against Hull City. After an improved performance against Arsenal, Unai Emery was hoping for better fortunes in what was his 200th game in charge of the Villans. A positive start saw Nicolas Jackson head wide in the opening couple of minutes, before youngster George Hemmings managed the club's first shot on target of the season in the first quarter of an hour.
However, the reigning Europa League champions often lacked the imagination to concern the newly promoted Tigers, who looked the most threatening during the first 45 with their collection of long-range efforts. That was until the start of the second half, which saw Villa spurn two glorious opportunities. First, some neat interplay between Emi Buendia and Jackson left John McGinn one-on-one with Konstantinos Tzolakis, only for the Scot to blaze his shot too high.
Three minutes later, an even better chance fell for Buendia, who couldn't keep his effort down after being left unmarked inside the penalty area. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player From that point on, it was the hosts looked most likely and who should've stolen the points. Mohamed Belloumi saw a stunning curling effort crash off the crossbar just after the hour mark.
Then at the death, Ryan Giles picked out Oli McBurnie inside the penalty area, but the hero from the Championship fluffed his lines when a first Premier League goal for the Tigers looked inevitable. While not three wins from three, the stalemate does mean that Hull remain unbeaten, something unfathomable at the start of the campaign. Meanwhile, Villa's first point is enough for them to climb out of the bottom three.
Despite failing to score for the third successive match, Unai Emery was pleased with what he saw from his Aston Villa side as they continue to regroup after losing several key players. The result is not enough but how we planned and how we played and how we created some chances to score, I think we deserved more," Emery told Sky Sports. "We avoided mistakes we made before.
Through our positioning and keeping possession we tried to dominate and then in the end we had the chances to win. "Of course they are very excited in front of their home supporters. They had some chances, but overall in 90 minutes, I can feel comfortable with how we are progressing." Despite the positivity, the Spaniard admitted there was no avoiding that his side needed to be more clinical in the final third moving forward.
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