Hull City: The Best of the New Boys

After the new Premier League campaign kicked off at the weekend, there is no doubt that Hull City were the best of the new boys.

The Tigers made a fantastic debut in top-flight football, beating Fulham 2-1 at the KC Stadium. Goals from Brazilian Geovanni and Craig Fagan secured the win for Hull, after they had earlier gone 1-0 down to a Seol Ki-Hyeon header.

Hull were the better side and deserved the win, and if their new signings continue to perform they could do much more than just survive.

Elsewhere, West Brom lost 1-0 on their return to the Premier League, although most would agree they had the most difficult fixture of the new boys, playing Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

A debut goal for Samir Nasri, after just 4 minutes, condemned West Brom to defeat on the opening day. However, despite the early setback, the Baggies held on and didn't concede another—even having a few good chances themselves.

That will give Baggies manager Tony Mowbray a lot of positives to take away from the game, and if they offer similar performances against the "lesser" teams, West Brom are definitely in with a very good chance of survival.

Stoke City also made their Premier League debut on the weekend, but were unable to emulate the performances of Hull, losing 3-1 away to Bolton Wanderers.

Goals from Gretar Steinsson, Kevin Davies and club-record signing Johan Elmander saw Bolton breeze past their visitors, with Ricardo Fuller netting an injury time consolation.

Stoke caused Bolton some early problems with their strong, physical style of play, but Bolton's quality shone through and in the end.

With Fuller's consolation barely deserved, Bolton could have done much more damage if they had not simply decided to settle at 3-0.

If the Potters are to survive in the Premier League, they need to up their game next time round and use more of their strong, physical style of play. They will also need to try and make a few more quality signings with Premier League experience.

Otherwise, they could end up being like another Derby County, something that would not only be bad for them, but for the Premier League as a whole.