Hull had never beaten Manchester United in the Premier League, and they did it with 28 per cent of the ball

Hull City had played Manchester United ten times in the Premier League and had never won one of them. The eleventh meeting was settled inside 38 minutes. Semi Ajayi turned in a rebound in the 17th minute, Nobel Mendy headed the second before half-time, and a side that finished the afternoon with 28 per cent of the ball won 2-0 at the MKM Stadium on Saturday.

Both goals came off Regan Slater’s boot

Neither arrived from open play. The first followed a Slater corner that Hull worked into the six-yard area, where Oli McBurnie’s effort was pushed away by Senne Lammens. Ajayi got there before anyone in red and forced the loose ball over the line.

The second was cleaner. Slater curled a free-kick into the box in the 38th minute and Mendy climbed above the United defence to head it past Lammens on his Premier League debut. Two dead balls, two goals, and United were 2-0 down at a promoted club inside 40 minutes of their season.

United had 72 per cent of the ball and nowhere to put it

What followed had a familiar shape. United kept possession, moved it sideways, and could not find a route into a penalty area Hull had already filled. They had much the greater share of the shots without ever looking likely to score with one.

Michael Carrick sent Marcus Rashford on at half-time for Patrick Dorgu, his first competitive appearance for United in 618 days. Rashford found space in wide areas and put one dangerous ball across the six-yard box, but United never built the sustained pressure the scoreline asked of them. Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos, the two midfielders signed this summer for a combined 85 million pounds or so, made their debuts passing in front of a Hull side with no interest in coming out to meet them.

Hull were missing most of a squad

Sergej Jakirovic picked his team from a long casualty list. Goalkeeper Jack Butland was out after surgery on a fractured arm, Charlie Hughes was still recovering from a groin operation, and Oscar Zambrano and summer signing Joe Gelhardt were both unavailable, among others. That makes the way Hull defended more impressive rather than less. They sat in a back five, let United have the ball in the areas where it did no damage, and treated the two set pieces that came their way as though the season turned on them.

There is a neatness to McBurnie being involved in the opener. His goal in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley and took Hull up from sixth, the lowest of the four play-off places. Three months on, his shot produced the goal that beat Manchester United.

Nine years between top-flight matches

Hull’s last Premier League season was 2016-17, which ended in relegation and a 7-1 home defeat to Tottenham on the final day. Their last league meeting with United was the goalless draw at Old Trafford on 1 February 2017. Across those ten games they had two draws and eight defeats, and the only dent they had ever made in the fixture was an EFL Cup semi-final second leg they won 2-1 and still went out on aggregate.

United’s context is less comfortable. Carrick took over from Ruben Amorim as caretaker last season, won 11 of his 16 matches, finished third, took the club back into the Champions League and was handed the job permanently on a deal running to 2028. His first full season has opened with a defeat at a promoted club, and the next visitors to Old Trafford are Ipswich Town, also up from the Championship.

Carrick was measured about it afterwards, saying his side had a bit to improve on and that it was never going to be perfect, and that one game does not change the direction of the football club. Slater, who supplied both goals, put the Hull view more simply. He called it massive, said you could see what it meant to everyone, and that they had picked up where they left off.

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