Spurs beat Coventry to claim first win as Kulusevski makes long-awaited return — SkimNews
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- Tottenham beat Coventry 3-1 on October 20, 2026, claiming their first Premier League win of the season after going winless across their opening six games and climbing from rock bottom to 16th, level on six points with their opponents.
- James Maddison opened the scoring in the 14th minute with a curling strike into the top corner on his first competitive start for Spurs since May 2025, with Sky Sports' Patrick Rowe calling him the piece that can link the club's £300m squad.
- Jack Rudoni equalised for Coventry four minutes into the second half, but Omar Marmoush restored Tottenham's lead in the 58th minute with his first goal for the club — a strike Lampard believed VAR would disallow for an elbow.
- Dejan Kulusevski came off the bench in the 85th minute to end a 526-day absence caused by a knee setback, with head coach Roberto De Zerbi telling his post-match press conference that he made the substitution specifically for the fans.
- Ben Davies scored in the 96th minute with the outside of his boot to round off a 3-1 win that ended a run in which no side had dropped more points than Spurs from winning positions at home in the Premier League since the start of 2024/25 (30).
- Jamie Carragher praised Maddison on Monday Night Football, saying he still has "a bit of magic in his boots," while Kulusevski told Sky Sports: "I'm a different man now… same guy that wants to play football but a little bit smarter."
- Frank Lampard, whose Coventry starting XI included eight players from the Championship, said of the 3-1 scoreline: "You wouldn't know which is the team that has been in the Premier League for the last 25 years and who has been out of it."
Why it matters: The win lifts Spurs from last to 16th and provides a platform ahead of a London derby at Chelsea on Saturday Night Football, but the club's deeper fragility remains: no side has dropped more points than Spurs from winning positions at home in the Premier League since the start of 2024/25 (30). With Maddison starting and Kulusevski back after 526 days, Roberto De Zerbi finally has the creative pieces to knit together a £300m squad that has looked disjointed through six winless games.
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