Sergej Jakiroivc on the key to Hull City winning their 'title'

He has that, with a 0-0 draw at home to Aston Villa taking his side to a third clean sheets from as many matches back in the world's best domestic football league.

And although Jakirovic still saw room for improvement, a squad which is still assimilating 18 signings has built a good foundation.

"In my opinion defence is (the key to) winning titles and for us a title is staying in the league because we will always create some chances," he said.

"Even today from 70th minute to 85th minute we sat back and waited for opportunities and then at the end we had two excellent opportunities."

Mohamed Ali-Cho shot at goalkeeper Zion Suzuki in the 88th minute and two minutes later, Oli McBurnie allowed a Ryan Giles cross to skew off his boot and go wide.

Before that, Mohamed Belloumi had hit the woodwork.

Not that Villa did not have their chances too, with John McGinn and EMi Buendia producing awful misses after being played into great goalscoring positions early in the second half.

"I think that we played a good game," said Jakirovic. "It was not easy to handle some situations there because they tried to overload us through the midfield, especially when McGinn came in like a right No 8 and we tried to fix this at half-time.

"I was not so happy with our aggression in the challenge in the first half because we did just four fouls.

"Especially in the midfield we have to be more aggressive.

"We had a couple of chances and they had two chances in the second half.

"I won't be ungrateful, I'm very happy because we have seven points and again a clean sheet, which is perfect. We are looking forward.

"I think that this (5-2-3) system suits to us.

"Of course it always could be better – some transitions (counter-attacks), especially some decisions but at the end these technical mistakes, it's about fatigue.

"Oli McBurnie's chance, if you asked me who I would like on the end of this chance, I would say put Oli there but he made a great effort during the game to help.

"If you are not compact, you ae not solid, you have problems immediately.

"They are a good team. They have one point but they are a good team and they need more time with good players."

Hull have taken seven points from their first three matches.

"I would have signed up for that immediately if you offered me it," said Jakirovic.

"It's great for us that we show we can compete at this level, that we can be dangerous and play some situations better in possessions.

"Every game we will grow and we will get better."

Jakirovic also revealed that deadline-day signing Ilyas Ansah has joined with an injury which was shown up by his medical - but Hull pushed a deal for the forward through anyway.

"Six weeks out minimum," revealed Jakirovic.

"It's very funny... or interesting. If he had not sent him for a medical, he would play. But they found some problems in his spine and the specialist's recommendation is to stay away from the pitch for six weeks."

Opposite number Unai Emery said: “The result is not enough, but I think we deserved more.

“We weren't clinical but of course to win matches, you need goals.

“We created chances today to score and we must improve."