The Opposition: Hull City

Hull City were promoted to the Premiership last season and were the latest surprise package to hit the Premiership.

Wins at place such as Arsenal and Spurs made the rest of the league take them seriously and not view them as the division’s ‘whipping boys.’ However, following a 5-1 defeat at Eastlands in December 2008 and the manager’s subsequent half time talk on the pitch in front of the visiting supporters. Hull’s season deteriorated rapidly but managed to survive relegation.

This season, the Tigers are struggling. Rooted third from bottom of the Premier League, just Burnley and Portsmouth, Hull have failed to win any of their last 10 games home or away in the Premiership but held Chelsea to a creditable 1-1 draw at the KC stadium in their last outing.

But from those 10 games, Hull have lost only four and still pose a threat to any team who may underestimate them. All of Hull’s four victories have been at home this season and another home victory could take them out of the bottom three, depending on results elsewhere.

Manager – Phil Brown

Phil Brown has been in charge of Hull since 2006 and took them into the Premiership at the end of the 2007/08 season. He became infamous last season for his spats with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and for his half-time team talk at Eastlands, where he made the players sit in front of the visiting Hull supporters after watching them concede four first half goals to the blues.

His current win ration is 33%, having won 51 and lost 61 of his 152 games in charge so far.

Ground

The KC Stadium has been Hull’s ground since their move from Boothferry Park in 2002. The current capacity is 25,404