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Manchester City preview
Manchester City boss Mark Hughes will unleash Robinho on Hull believing the Brazilian can remind everyone what a class act he is.

The #32.5million striker has not made a Premier League appearance for the Blues since mid-August, the vast majority of that absence created by a stress fracture of an ankle that he suffered on World Cup duty for Brazil in Argentina.

That three-month void has been filled by endless speculation about the 26-year-old's future, most of which has suggested he will depart Eastlands for Barcelona, if not during the January transfer window, then at the end of the season.

But now Robinho is ready to make his comeback, Hughes wants attention to be focused on the forward's on-field contribution and to remind people about the ability that brought him to City's attention in the first place.

"Robinho is an outstanding player," said Hughes.

"If anyone is out for a long period sometimes you can forget how accomplished they are.

"Having worked with him this week and seen him back in the group, we can see the qualities that he can bring to the side.

"We are delighted that he is back and fit and well because he will have a real influence for us this year I am sure." Hughes' most immediate priority is turning a run of six successive Premier League draws into a sequence of victories, starting tomorrow when his side entertain Hull.

In that sense, Robinho's contribution could be invaluable.

"He could have turned some of those draws into victories," agreed Hughes.

"If you get him into key areas he is one of the best in the world with his ability at close quarters.

"It is something we have lacked when teams have tried to come and frustrate us."

Hull preview
Jimmy Bullard is back in contention for Hull.

The influential midfielder, sidelined for most of the year with a knee injury, was rested for the midweek win over Everton.

Forward Craig Fagan (rib) is also fit again and Bernard Mendy is available after suspension.

Midfielder Seyi Olofinjana (hamstring) is again missing but could come back into contention next week.

The match sees Tigers boss Phil Brown return to the scene of his infamous half-time team talk.

Hull's debut top-flight season is still best remembered for the moment when Brown kept his players on the pitch after conceding four first-half goals at Eastlands last Boxing Day.

It was an extraordinary decision and came to be viewed as a turning point as Hull's bright early-season form evaporated and the club plunged into a relegation battle.

Its significance was played down by people within the club and Brown himself has always defended his actions, even though results meant the matter was raised throughout the remainder of the campaign.

Brown gave a simple "no" when asked earlier this week if he had any personal demons to exorcise and he further avoided the subject by handing pre-match media duties to assistant Brian Horton.

"I'm surprised people are mentioning that one!" Horton joked. "I didn't think you'd bring that up! "It will probably stay in the history of football what he did.

"But is that a bad thing? It's a good thing.

"I did crazier things than that. I nearly killed one kid with a Vicks bottle one day when I threw it across the dressing room and it hit him straight on the temple." He added: "Some people thought it was a good thing, some people thought it was a bad thing.

"We just felt they had let us down, the way we had done things over that period." Hull head to Eastlands in high spirits after reviving their campaign with three positive results this month.

The Tigers began November in the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League and with reports claiming Brown was one bad result away from the sack.

Victories over Stoke and Everton either side of a draw against West Ham have transformed mood in the camp and lifted the side to 15th.

Man City vs Hull

Last modified 21:47 29/11/09

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Manchester City's latest collapse and a seventh straight draw was sealed not by the perceived injustice of Hull's late penalty, as Mark Hughes claimed.

For once, the finger of blame could not be pointed at City's defence, even if Kolo Toure did concede a harsh late spot-kick from which Hull ultimately earned a deserved point.

The real villains of the piece, the men pushing Hughes closer to the City exit door, were his shameful strikers, whose continued failure to deliver could cost their boss his job.

Why were Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, the two most successful bosses in the Premier League, happy to offload Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor last summer?

The answer came with the pitiful performances of both at Eastlands on Saturday, Adebayor peripheral to the point of disinterest, Tevez busy but wholly ineffective.

Robinho, English football's most expensive player at £32.5million, did not fare much better, but at least he had the excuse that it was his first appearance for three months.

Hughes must be getting sick of defending the indefensible after watching his team capitulate within sight of the winning post for the fourth time in five Premier League games.

While draws at Liverpool and Aston Villa must be seen as positive, stalemates against Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham, Burnley and Hull are unacceptable for a club of City's stated ambition.

City take on Arsenal in the Carling Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday, a game Hughes must win to ease the pressure on him, before going to Premier League leaders Chelsaea next weekend.

While City's owners have publicly backed Hughes, the growing discontent among their fans - who booed the team off at the end - will not be lost on them with each disappointing result.

Every draw feels like a defeat to Hughes, so much so the City boss made a Freudian slip in his post-match analysis, when he talked of his frustration at being beaten by Hull.

"We're looking at this one game where we've been defeated and frustration is the main feeling," said Hughes.

"The other draws in this run were decent enough performances but it's the home ones that have frustrated everybody.

"We're still very much in touch with the top of the Premier League, but this run of draws is a frustration for everybody at the moment.

"At times we look a very accomplished, at other times we look what we are - a team which has come together quickly.

"We've just got to get back to winning ways and, as soon as we do, a lot of the things we've seen in our play will vanish completely."

Getting back to winning ways is easier said than done, particularly with a squad low on confidence and with players whose performances suggest their heart is not in the club.

Adebayor, who has scored once in six games since returning from a three-match ban, was so poor he was replaced with 25 minutes left by Roque Santa Cruz, who was even worse.

And City's attacking threat was so weak Hull keeper Matt Duke had only one real save of note to make, when Tevez's angled shot was delivered straight at him in the first-half.

The problem for Hughes is that he is not working with a squad he inherited. He has identified and bought the players at his disposal and, as such, his judgment is on the line.

Of City's starting line-up, only Stephen Ireland was not a Hughes signing and, as much as the players continue to let down their boss, it is Hughes whose head is ultimately on the block.

That it took a wicked deflection from a Shaun Wright-Phillips shot for City to take the lead in the 45th minute, said everything about their lack of conviction going forward.

And the longer the score stayed at 1-0 and City's players did nothing to try to extend their lead, the more Hull grew in confidence, embodied by the irrepressible Jimmy Bullard.

If the penalty for Toure's foul on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was fortuitous, it was no more than Hull deserved for their endeavour, and just what City deserved for their impotence.

Bullard dispatched it before Hull's players staged a hilarious re-enactment of boss Phil Brown's on-pitch half-time team-talk at the same stadium last season.

But Hull were the only ones left laughing at the final whistle, as City lurched deeper into crisis, with the pressure mounting on the beleaguered Hughes.

City may have been defeated just once all season, at local rivals Manchester United, where their performance merited a point.

But Hughes knows time is running out for him, with owner Sheikh Mansour entitled to expect more having given him more than £200m to spend over the past 14 months.

Man City (4-4-2): Given 6; Richards 6, Toure 6, Lescott 7, Bridge 5; Wright-Phillips 6, Ireland 6, De Jong 6, Robinho 5; Adebayor 3 (Santa Cruz 68, 2), Tevez 4

Hull (4-4-1-1): Duke 6; McShane 6, Gardner 6, Zayatte 6, Dawson 5; Garcia 6, Bullard 8, Marney 6, Hunt 5; Geovanni 5 (Boateng 62, 6); Altidore 5 (Hesselink 73, 5)