Hull City stun champions Leicester

In fact, perhaps their own fans did not expect Hull City would win this fixture.

The Tigers secured a superb opening-day victory over reigning champions Leicester in the Premier League on Saturday, with Adama Diomande and Robert Snodgrass scoring the goals in a 2-1 victory at the KCOM Stadium.

Robert Snodgrass fired a 57th minute victor for Hull but Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester lacked the intensity that underpinned their previous campaign.

“I thought the players had it in them to produce something but all credit to the football players because they showed a lot of the determination”, Phelan told Sky Sports. We have to improve our team as a team.

Tottenham Hotspur’s Erik Lamela put away an excellent header just before the hour mark to rescue a 1-1 draw for at Everton. There were 1-0 victories for West Bromwich Albion at Crystal Palace and Swansea City at Burnley, and also 1-1 draws for Stoke City at promoted Middlesborough and Watford at Southampton.

The message from caretaker manager Mike Phelan would have been for his Hull side to keep a tight defence in the opening stages of the second half.

“We tried to win but sometimes it’s impossible.We made some mistakes and we have to think where we made them”. We knew it would not be easy, but we stuck to the task really well and they got the rewards their efforts deserved.

“Obviously character’s a big issue when a lot of things are not going your way in preseason… a lot of the time it was fingers crossed to make sure that we had enough players to get out onto this field today”. Yet to warm into the new season, a drop-off from the Foxes’ late-season heroics is to be expected.

Spurs lost their France keeper Hugo Lloris to a hamstring injury in the 36th minute of their disappointing first half but they bounced back when Lamela nodded in Kyle Walker’s cross.

The visitors could have snatched a late victor when Everton keeper Maarten Stekelenburg denied new signing Vincent Janssen.

The Venezuelan, who had a fine chance saved by the diving Wayne Hennessey early in the first half, steered a glancing header from substitute James McClean’s free kick inside the bottom corner of the net in the 74th minute.

An old rival of Guardiola from their time in Spain, Mourinho had made no secret of his desire to be Alex Ferguson’s long-term successor at Old Trafford and will surely be out to prove a point after being sacked by Chelsea last season a few months after leading them to the title. While the Portuguese was not quite as energetic at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium, his reaction to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s second-half strike was instructive. I prefer like a team.

Amartey signed for Leicester in January, and while he featured occasionally for Leicester as they saw out their title triumph, Ranieri was reticent to change a winning team and the Black Star ended the campaign with just one start and a further four substitute appearances in the top flight.

Fernandinho (left) and Lamine Kone during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Sunderland on Saturday.