Coventry City (Home) 19.10.2026

After a week in Marbella having a bonding camp, it gave Roberto De Zerbi time to work with the players on what might become a preferred style of play and changes to the starting eleven – some enforced, some not – that seemed willing to take the game to Coventry and even when they suffered a setback, the response was good.  The seeds of development are being sown and will take time to germinate, but as long as the trend goes in the right direction, it might just pay dividends in the end.

Coventry started the match the stronger, both in attacking terms and also in manhandling the Spurs players seemingly unable to tackle them in a fair way, but preferring to hold and pull them with the referee allowing multiple examples go without punishment.  After 10 seconds Thomas-Asante got the ball inside the box on the right and fired in a low cross that Kinsky gathered at the near post at the second attempt, then.  Toni was in action again after eight minutes when Sakamoto bent a ball into the six yard box and with van Hecke going for it, but missing it, Kinsky stopped the ball with his foot and was quick to get hands on it.  Ten minutes in van Hecke did get his head to the ball when Thomas-Asante linked with Sakamoto for the Japanese midfielder to shoot from 12 yards out and the Dutch defender’s touch took the ball over the bar, but when the corner came in Sakamoto pulled Kinsky down so Thomas’ header wide wouldn’t have counted if it had gone in anyway. 

Robertson won a header to a deep cross but it went straight to Rushworth low at his near post and then he fizzed a low cross in that the keeper held.  From early on, da Silva was struggling against Mo Kudus and he tormenting him throughout, ending up with the defender picking up a yellow card after 45 minutes.  Before then, he took on da Silva and not knowing which way he was going to go stood off him, allowing Mo to lay the ball up for James Maddison to strike first time from outside the box, curling the ball over the keeper to find the top corner of the goal at the far post.  The joy among the fans and on Madders face showed how much he had been waiting for that moment.  Booed at every touch by the Coventry supporters despite his love for the club, he was able to bring out the darts celebration after such a long time out injured.

Spurs had the ball in the net again in the 18th minute, with van Hecke’s pass releasing Robertson down the left and his cross was tucked away by Dominic Solanke, but the Scot was clearly offside, although VAR had a long look at it !  Don’t they always.  The inconsistency shown by the referee came when he booked Yirenkyi for a foul on Gray, let Rudoni get away with clearing out Maddison from behind and then booked Solanke when Thomas-Asante ran across him.  I’ve no problem with the two yellow cards, but the tackle from behind was the most dangerous of them and not even a free-kick was given.  If it had, Dom wouldn’t have picked up a booking as the play went on.

Maddison was proving too skilful for the opposition players, who pulled or kicked him most times that he got the ball.  He took some revenge when winning the ball off van Ewijk and smashing it into the Coventry bench – apologising to Lumplard for hitting him with his interception !  On 35 minutes there was a ripple of applause as Dejan Kulusevski ran down the touchline in a warm-up, but on the pitch van Hecke blocked Cherif’s shot wide, with the Sky Blues striker then throwing Maddison to the floor as the corner waited to be taken.  Seven minutes before the break Maddison tired another shot as he bent it on goal, but Thomas blocked it with his head and then Solanke turned away from Thomas on the edge of the box, but fired his shot over the top.

When Thomas-Asante was played into the box, Micky van de Ven raced across to slide the ball off for a corner, but when it was cleared Mo Kudus did well to hold the ball against da Silva until the defender tripped him as he jinked away from him. 

Four minutes after half-time, the Coventry equaliser was a mess of a goal.  van Hecke lost the ball in the opposition half, with them moving the ball right to Rudoni.  He played the ball into Yirenkyi and received it back, hammered a shot at goal that hit Thomas-Asante coming back to him and this time his shot from inside the six yard box had too much on it for Kinsky’s hand to stop.  It was a blow as Spurs had started he second half well, but the Coventry man was more determined to get to the ball each time.   

Tottenham’s response from a short corner was to work Kudus in past Sakamoto and he dug the ball across, Micky tried to flick it on and although it was cleared, Tonali ran onto it just inside the box to fire a shot over the bar.  Sandro then took another pop at goal taking a great touch to set himself up for a left foot shot that didn’t go as far over the bar as his first one.  When Spurs had another go at goal, it came when a good passage of passing found Andy Robertson on the left.  He turned the ball inside to Omar Marmoush, who had van Ewijk for company.  As they tussled just outside the box, the Coventry defender held his face but Marmoush played on to fire a precise shot beyond Rushworth into the opposite corner for his first Spurs goal.  It was the kind of goal he scored for Mancheater City and hopefully, now that monkey is off his back, he can go on with confidence to score more.  The pink shirts surrounded the ref wanting a foul and knowing our luck it might have meant the goal was ruled out, but surprisingly, the goal stood and Tottenham were back in the lead.

Coventry tried some chaotic football to try and get back in the game, with Awoniyi leading it, with balls into the box causing panic and van Hecke throwing himself at a header to get the ball cleared as it bobbled about the box.  The match calmed down with little in the way of incidents until Thomas-Asante collided with Fernandes and the ball went to a pink shirt, but Gray’s tackle won the ball for Tottenham.  It was a nothing issue but one of the Sky Blues coaching team said something to the fourth official and got booked.  Spurs were starting to manage the game and Kudus bent a shot over the goal on the far side, Fernandes shot straight into the keeper’s chest.

85 minutes of the game had passed when a loud ripple of excitement ran through the crowd, as Kulusevski got stripped to come on for Kudus and Tel replaced Marmoush and Mathys was on his own against three defenders, btu managed to curl a shot just beyond the far post as the game went into injury time.  His footwork was obviously something that was discussed while in Spain this week and players were commenting on his skill on the ball in the media, so a couple of times he danced around the ball on the left wing, but in the sixth of eight added minutes, he ended one of them with a cross that Solanke got onto after a poor clearance by Thomas and laid it sideway for Ben Davies, a yard outside the area, to shoot with the outside of his left foot.  He squeezed it between three Coventry defenders but it lacked power although Rushworth somehow contrived to dive over the ball and it was 3-1.  It was all Tottenham deserved as it was a much improved home display and a nice touch that Ben should score.  My mate had been getting nervous and I said don’t worry, someone will score a 30 yard worldie, thinking it would be the other side, but thankfully it was Ben Davies (although not quite 30 yards out !).

The game ended and the relief of a home win was palpable as the cheers rang out around the ground.  It had been a long time coming and more important than the three points was the sight of Maddison and Kulusevski out on the grass.  The performance contained some good attacking football in the tradition of the club and whilst the defending still needs some work, the lack of goals in recent times has been really worrying, so three goals aided by the creativity of the key players was good to see.  While the team did come under some pressure, it was interesting to see how Toni Kinsky dealt with it.  The crosses that came in, he made decent decisions on which to go for and made contact or caught those ones.  Having watched Juventus the night before, their Spurs loanee Guglielmo Vicario was still not convincing dealing with crosses and set-pieces, so the contrast was stark.

The Coventry fans enjoyed their first visit to Tottenham in 13 years with lots of loud singing of incomprehensible and Jimmy Hill songs.  Their players showed some energy and got lots of pink shirts back behind the ball to try to stifle any threat on their goal, but going forward they rarely tested Kinsky even though they created chances … mostly from set pieces.

While it wasn’t the greatest Spurs display, it was solid enough and with some better passing would have been a more comfortable win, but to leave the ground with a bounce in my step was a feeling that I want to experience more often.

• Omar Marmoush scored his first Tottenham goal.
• This was Dejan Kulusevski’s first appearance in 526 days following his knee injury against Crystal Palace on 11.05.2025.
• Tottenham’s win was the last by any team in the Premier League this season.
• Players took the knee before the match.