Frank Lampard said moments of individual quality from James Maddison and Omar Marmoush proved decisive as Coventry City lost 3-1 to Tottenham at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Coventry’s two-match Premier League winning run ended on Monday, with Roberto De Zerbi’s side claiming victory after a late goal from substitute Ben Davies in the 96th minute. The result moved Spurs one place above Coventry in the standings.
Maddison gave Tottenham the lead in the 14th minute with a sweeping finish into the top-left corner. The Sky Blues responded early in the second half when Jack Rudoni scored, but the hosts restored their advantage shortly before the hour mark.
Marmoush struck from just outside the penalty area for his first Spurs goal, although Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth managed to get a touch to the shot. Davies then completed the scoring deep into stoppage time.
The result means Coventry have lost five of their first seven league matches for the first time since 1996-97, when they recorded one win, one draw and five defeats in the Premier League. They avoided relegation that season.
Lampard was encouraged by Coventry’s display despite their defeat. Tottenham became the first team to score three goals from outside the penalty area in a single Premier League match since Fulham did so against Leicester City in May 2023.
“Very pleased with the performance. We were in the game to say the least,” Lampard told BBC Sport. “Two outstanding goals for them.
“The second was questionable because the arm was up in the face but a quality finish. I am proud of the performance. 3-1 feels nasty at the end because of the last goal.
“We created some good moments. We wanted to start well, as they started well in every game they have played here but haven’t got what they deserved.
“The feeling and flow of the game we were brave and getting people up on their top line. Individuals were showing their quality with Rudoni and Thomas-Asante – eight of the boys played in the Championship last year, and now they have shown they have grown.
“I don’t like the fixture list games, they are all hard. Are we happy? We will always want more, we feel there are a couple more points we feel we could have had.”
Coventry created opportunities but recorded only 0.82 expected goals from 12 shots, with just one effort testing Antonin Kinsky. They have also now failed to win any of their past 48 Premier League matches when conceding first, drawing six and losing 42 since a 2-1 victory over Charlton Athletic in March 1999.
Rudoni offered another positive by becoming the first Coventry player to score in successive Premier League appearances since John Hartson scored in four consecutive matches between March and April 2001.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating, we felt we did well as a team. We took the game plan to them well. At the end it really could’ve been 2-2,” Rudoni said.
“We’ve got to take the positives. We have a big game on Saturday so we’ll just look at the positives and get ready for that.”
Coventry now face two home league matches against Fulham and Sunderland before the end of October, followed by games against Everton, Crystal Palace and Leeds United next month.
“We’ve shown we can compete and, like you say, it’s the little differences like shots on target,” Rudoni added. “We just need to get points on the board. We need to really get points on the board.”
