Davies hoping for City slip-up
Hull captain Curtis Davies is hoping Manchester City's quest for multiple trophies trips them up when the sides meet on Saturday.
The Barclays Premier League champions visit the KC Stadium just three days before an important Champions League assignment against Roma and three after thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 7-0 in the Capital One Cup.
While many of the champions' top-flight rivals used the midweek cup fixtures to rotate their squad, Manuel Pellegrini used nine of the players who had drawn with Chelsea last Sunday.
And Davies, whose side go in as heavy underdogs despite home advantage, hopes Manchester City's divided focus counts against them on this occasion.
"Manchester City have got such strength in depth so to see some of the players they used in the cup surprised me, they must really want to win that competition," said Davies.
"When I saw they had won 7-0 that was pretty shocking but I'm hoping that come the weekend they've burnt their legs out a little bit.
"They're also looking forward to a Champions League game next week that they will feel they have to win and hopefully they might just take their eyes off the ball a little bit and if so we might be able to take advantage."
Despite the mitigating factor of the fixture list, Davies knows he will be coming up against opponents who are highly likely to be fighting for the title at the end of the season and will arrive in East Yorkshire with a confidence to match.
But it is a challenge he has no intention of shirking.
"We're Hull City, they're Man City...you have to be honest, the onus is on them to do well," he said.
"The onus will be on them to win every game and anything we can do to upset the apple cart is good for us.
"Anyone who wants to play in the Premier League should want to play against these players. If not you may as well stay in the Championship or League One, wherever.
"You come to the top level to test yourself against the best and there's not many better than Manchester City, with the (Sergio) Agueros and (Edin) Dzekos of this world.
"It's going to be difficult, you can never get away from that, but you have to thrive on that fact."
Hull manager Steve Bruce will continue to ease Hatem Ben Arfa in slowly with a place on the bench. The loan star made his first Tigers start in the Capital One Cup defeat at West Brom but is not yet considered fully fit by Bruce.
Fellow new boy Gaston Ramirez is likely to sit out with a groin complaint, while David Meyler took a knock in midweek.
City boss Pellegrini wants to see the Blues hit a hot streak on the back of their mauling of Sheffield Wednesday.
Prior to triumphing 7-0 in the midweek tie at the Etihad Stadium, City had gone four games in all competitions without a win.
And ahead of the trip to Hull, Pellegrini's reigning champions are sixth in the table, with their five top-flight fixtures so far having yielded eight points - five fewer than leaders Chelsea.
The Chilean insists he is not worried about the start City have made to the campaign, but at the same time he has no doubt they need to stop dropping points.
Speaking on Friday, Pellegrini said of the handsome cup victory: "I think it was a very useful match for our team.
"We were not scoring too many goals at home. In the previous four games, we didn't win.
"We were not playing bad but we were not winning, and it was important to win in the way we did.
"I hope this can continue in the future, especially tomorrow against Hull because in the Premier League we cannot drop many points."
He added: "For all the teams, it is not good to drop points near the beginning because finally you could win or lose the Premier League by just one point.
"But for the moment, I think we are not worried."
City have Sergio Aguero and David Silva back available for Saturday's contest after knee and ankle problems respectively, along with Pablo Zabaleta following the completion of his suspension.
Samir Nasri and Fernando (both groin) and Stevan Jovetic (hamstring) remain sidelined.
Source: DSG
