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Lucas Herrington enjoyed another big day in his Premier League education as Hull City earned a surprise 2-2 draw at Chelsea to maintain their four-game unbeaten league start.
Chelsea’s fragile defence was exposed again by newly-promoted Hull at Stamford Bridge, with 19-year-old Socceroos defender Herrington again playing his part with a half-hour off the bench.
The highly-rated Australian keeps impressing at the back and he finished with a 100% passing accuracy in his own half to go with a 6.2 Sofascore rating as Hull joined an exclusive Premier League group.
Hull have picked up eight points from their first four Premier League games this season (W2 D2) – the only newly promoted sides to gain more points in their first four matches to start a campaign were Nottingham Forest in 1994-95 and Bolton Wanderers in 2001-02 (both 10).
“We’ve shown again that we are a serious team (at this level) and that it is not going to be easy to beat us,” said Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic.
“We can create problems for teams and I still think that we can play even better with some better decision-making and being a bit more brave with the players having a bit more belief in themselves.
“Every game for us at the moment is a very big experience, but to have eight points from the first four games – it’s thank you very much because we are in a very good way.”
But it is Chelsea’s defensive problems that are becoming eye-catching. Xabi Alonso’s team have conceded at least two goals in each of their league games and 12 goals in six games in all competitions.
“We can do better. We got what we deserved,” Alonso said. “We need to be more solid and be more controlled.”
It took a goal from Joao Pedro in the 66th to salvage a draw after Mohamed Belloumi’s double had seen Hull, who now have eight points from four matches, rally from 1-0 down to lead 2-1. Morgan Rogers had put Chelsea ahead in the seventh minute.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have spent a fortune rebuilding their attack over the past two seasons, but they were held 0-0 by a Fulham team who hadn’t kept a clean sheet and were pointless going into the game.
“When you draw, especially at home, you can’t be happy,” new boss Andoni Iraola said. “Today we lacked a bit of freshness and we did not do enough offensively to make the difference.”
Tottenham remain goalless and winless after a summer of heavy spending and the boos rang out after their goalless draw at home to Everton as they voiced their disapproval at it being more than six hours since Spurs last scored.
Aston Villa’s nightmare start to the season also continued with a 2-1 loss at home to Nottingham Forest, while substitute Zian Flemming scored a 90th-minute winner as Ipswich beat Crystal Palace 3-2, and Bournemouth drew 2-2 with Brentford.
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