Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Coventry City to North London on Monday in pursuit of a first Premier League win this season, and collected a 3-1 victory over their newly-promoted visitors.
Spurs were 0-3-3 after a summer of spending and move out of the bottom three after James Maddison, Omar Marmoush, and Ben Davies scored against Frank Lampard’s Cov.
Jack Rudoni scored for the second-straight week for Coventry, who are one point out of the drop zone.
- James Maddison’s gorgeous goal gives lead to Spurs against his former club; His first club goal in 17 months.
- Jack Rudoni muscles his way to equalizer.
- Omar Mamoush and Ben Davies scored second-half goal to give Spurs first win of the season.
- Spurs’ first half looked how they’d drdw it up — at least traditionally — against a newly-promoted side. Possession was over 75% (though) shots have been even at three.
- Tottenham Hotspur move out of the bottom three on six points for the season, ahead of 17th-place Coventry City on goal differential.
- Dejan Kulusevski makes first Spurs appearance in 17 months with late substitution.
- Roberto De Zerbi thinks second-half injuries for Tosin Adarabioyo and Andy Robertson are “small problems.”
- Spurs go to Chelsea at 12:30pm ET Saturday, just after Coventry City’s 10am kickoff versus Fulham
How are you feeling after the win? “It’s everything. We are so, so happy. We’ve had many performances in the last weeks but we hadn’t reached the end result of winning. Happy to win the game and get my first goal.”
“I’ve been working a lot on the small details and decisions in the final third.”
What can this win mean? “Every game we learned. We’ve played amazing but the end result wasn’t there but our belief stayed and the team mentality was strong.”
On De Zerbi: “I feel amazing with the coach, he helps us and teaches us small details and helps us on a personal basis.”
“He’s intense but I love the intensity and the pasison that he brings to us every day. We believe in the system he plays and our team.”
Thoughts on the game: “We are very happy with the result. Honestly I think we played much better other games, first half against Villa or Everton. I didn’t think we played so well, give Coventry credit for their low block. If you make mistakes or you force the pass, you concede control back and we didn’t. We didn’t create many chances like the last games. James scores a great goal. We celebrate Kulusevski after the game in the dressing room — a great thing for us, for the player, and for the guy.”
“You don’t find that coaches after they win, they say they didn’t play so well. I’m honest because when we play well, I say it too — what I’ve seen in the game. Today we didn’t play with intensity. It was tricky because we played with three at the back but we must play because of injuries and fitness. Mateus Fernandes worked two days because of his wife having a baby. Conor Gallagher was injured two days ago and I tried to give another solution and occupation of space. We suffered because we didn’t play well.”
How did the Robertson, Tosin injuries hamper the second half? “It was tough to react after two injuries especially Robertson who gives us mentality and experience. But Davies, Fernandes, Mathys, gave us good inside the game. You saw eight minutes extra time and for the player who comes inside from the bench 15, 20, 25 minutes, are very important: Crucial.”
You told James Maddison to have fun. How fun was it to watch him? “I said the same to Mateus Fernandes. I think players sometimes forget we are playing football. Great stadium, great fans, but in the last 2, 3, 4 seasons they suffered a lot. It’s a game and I want them to enjoy it. Sometimes pressure and results or the people, the social media, they put too much pressure on players but in the end you have to be clear in your head, especially the creative players: Maddison, Kulusevski, Marmoush. And then put in the work.”
Thoughts on the game: “I thought we were really good in the first half. Hard to say after a 3-1 defeat but the third goal was a mistake and distills the picture of the game. At 2-1 I thought we were the team pushing.”
“We’ve progressed and come here and performed against a fully-loaded squad. We had the boys who helped get us out of the championship and they boys showed a lot competing all the way until the end.”
Just didn’t have the clinical edge after scoring 4 vs Newcastle? “It’s football isn’t it? I get sold on the overall play. Everyone at the stadium knew we were a threat right until the end of the game. You come here away from home against a strong team — their results do not line up with how they are playing. We were more than competitive in the game. You’re never happy with a defeat — you don’t want to overpraise it — but we’re happy come away with the performance.”
Thoughts on not getting a point? “Frustrating. We felt we had done well as a team. We took the game plan to them well. At the end it really could’ve been 2-2. It’s cliche but we have to take the positives with a big game on Saturday.”
Played well but didn’t find clinical edge as vs Newcastle? “Maybe the clinical edge, sometimes stuff doesn’t fall for you — it’s football. What we can do is keep applying pressure, go to good places, and hope it falls for us.”
Conceded right after drawing level at 1: “Maybe we dropped a little bit deep. It’s frustrating to concede quite soon after we got an equalizer.. You’re away from home at a good team, you’ve just gotta work hard and be solid for a second.”
More proof Cov can stay up? “We’ve shown we can compete for sure. It’s the little differences, maybe getting more shots on target and getting to the right areas. We’ve got two massive games coming up, back at home Saturday in front of our fans. We’re looking forward to taking the positives from it and really getting after it.”
Mathys Tel puts a hopeful cross toward Kulusevski, who slips inside the 18.
Dominic Solanke darts onto the loose ball and plays a quite short pass to Davies, whose shot takes a deflection.
Rushworth’s dive is less than adequate, and the ball gets under his arm and rolls over the line in stoppage time.
A loud roar greets the return of Dejan Kulusevski, the playmaking midfielder who has missed almost a year and a half of Spurs action.
He subs into the game with Mathys Tel in the 87th minute, ending the days of Marmoush and Kudus.
Kulusevski, 26, has 25 goals and 30 assists in 147 senior appearances for Spurs. He first joined the North London outfit on loan in January 2022 before making the move fulltime in the summer of 2023.
Ben Davies, Conor Gallagher, and Mateus Fernandes have come into the game for Robertson, Maddison, and Tosin Adarabioyo as the game reaches its final 19 minutes.
Robertson’s assist on Marmoush’s goal moves into a tie for 25th on the Premier League’s career assist list (Nobby Solano).
It’s bangers only for Spurs today!
Omar Marmoush with a spell-binding shot after turning van Ewijk.
The defender wants a foul for Marmoush’s elbow to the face, and it’s been checked and cleared.
Jack Rudoni is always buzzing around and he works his way through separate parts of Coventry’s early second-half equalizer.
Fresh off a goal against Newcastle, Rudoni makes it two-in-two with a busy move on the left which uses two teammates en route to 1-1.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Coventry City halftime stats
Possession: Spurs 72%
xG: Cov 0.42-0.39
Shot attempts: Spurs 5-4
Corners: Cov 3-1
Fouls: Cov 8-6
James Maddison scores against his hometown club and he has to celebrate given his 17th-month wait for a goal and Spurs’ plight.
This is a gorgeous swoop of his right foot from Kudus’ lay-off.
Fantastic finish and Spurs have a deserved lead in the 15th minute.
Coventry City wait a bit too long to pull the trigger on what could’ve been 1-0.
Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Milan van Ewijk combine well off a long ball from the keeper Carl Rushworth but Sakamoto’s internal timer is stuck on Championship and his shot is blocked by the face of Jan Paul van Hecke.
Warning sign, though.
The first seven minutes see Tottenham Hotspur well over 80% of the ball.
But it’s Cov who get a couple of mini-opportunities, as Antonin Kinsky gets into position and a bit of luck to keep it 0-0.
Spurs do not have a single Premier League player with multiple goal contributions this season.
Conor Gallagher, Dominic Solanke, and Jan Paul van Hecke are the Tottenham Hotspur players with goals, while Sandro Tonali, Andy Robertson, and Mohammed Kudus have assists.
Gallagher starts the game on the bench but the other five start for De Zerbi.
Starting XI
Kinsky
Robertson
Adarabioyo
van Hecke
van de Ven
Gray
Tonali
Maddison
Kudus
Marmoush
Solanke
Subs: Dubravka, Senesi, Gallagher, Tel, Fernandes, Kulusevski, Davies, Olusesi, Williams-Barnett
Starting XI
Rushworth
van Ewijk
Thomas
Pinnock
Dasilva
Yirenkyi
Grimes
Rudoni
Sakamoto
Thomas-Asante
Cherif
Subs: Bentley, Simms, Mason-Clark, Mfuni, Awoniyi, Onyeka, Kesler-Hayden, Torp, Hamer.
There hasn’t been a league match-up between these two since 2001, but they’ve met in four cup ties.
To no one’s surprise, Spurs have won all four.
All-time, Spurs lead the series with 44 wins, 22 draws, and 26 losses.
Kick off time: 3 pm ET Monday (October 19)
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — London
TV Channel: USA
Stream link: Watch on USA
