Tottenham Hotspur are finally off the mark. James Maddison scored on his first start in 17 months, Omar Marmoush struck his first goal for the club and Ben Davies sealed it in stoppage time as Spurs beat Coventry City 3-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday night — their first Premier League win of the season, at the seventh attempt.
Maddison announces his return
Roberto De Zerbi's side started the night bottom of the table, winless in six with just three points and three goals. Nobody embodied the chance to change that more than Maddison, whose return to the starting XI was the headline of Maddison's first start in 17 months.
Fourteen minutes in, he delivered. Mohammed Kudus found him in space on the right and Maddison swept a gorgeous first-time finish from the edge of the box — against his hometown club, where he came through the academy before leaving for Norwich City a decade ago. The celebration was restrained; the relief around the stadium was not. Spurs dominated the ball from there, holding more than 70 per cent possession in the first half, but Coventry carried a threat: Tatsuhiro Sakamoto had an early effort blocked and Brandon Thomas-Asante got in behind, only for Micky van de Ven's recovery pace to save the home side. Dominic Solanke headed over as Spurs pushed for a second, and 1-0 at the break felt like the minimum the performance deserved — and the most fragile lead in football for a side with this little confidence.
Rudoni rattles Spurs, Marmoush answers
Four minutes after half-time, the fear arrived. Jack Rudoni, fresh from scoring against Newcastle last week, would not be denied: he drove Coventry's equaliser on 49 minutes, Thomas-Asante providing the assist, for his second goal in two games. A bottom-of-the-table home crowd that has seen this film before fell quiet, and Frank Lampard's side, chasing a third straight win, sensed their moment.
It lasted nine minutes. On 58 minutes Andy Robertson fed Marmoush, the Egyptian turned Milan van Ewijk and curled a thumping finish into the far corner — his first goal for Tottenham since his move from Manchester City. Coventry's players wanted a foul for a stray elbow in the build-up; the check cleared the goal, as Sky Sports recorded in their match coverage, and Spurs were back in front.
The last half-hour was about nerve and bodies. Robertson, whose assist had restored the lead, went down and signalled to the bench — a worrying sight noted by NBC Sports in their live coverage — and was replaced by Davies in a triple change that also brought on Conor Gallagher for the applauded Maddison, with Mateus Fernandes replacing the injured Tosin Adarabioyo. Marmoush himself limped off late, but the 87th minute brought the night's loudest cheer for a substitute: Dejan Kulusevski came on for Kudus, ending a 17-month absence of his own, a return charted in Kulusevski's return to the Spurs squad.
Coventry pushed, but in the sixth minute of stoppage time Davies — the man who had come on to protect the lead — finished from a Solanke assist to make it 3-1 and end the contest. There were no red cards on a night when, for once, Spurs finished a game stronger than they started it: 15 shots to Coventry's six, and 68 per cent of the ball.
So what: off the bottom, but the real test is next
The table is why this mattered so much. Spurs began the day 20th, the Premier League's only winless team, on three points from six games. This win takes them to six points — level with Coventry and Bournemouth — and lifts them four places to 16th, out of the relegation zone. Coventry, whose back-to-back wins are now a memory, stay on six points and drop below Spurs on goal difference.
One win does not fix a season that began with a summer of heavy spending and ten new arrivals and three goals in six games, and the injury list grew again: Robertson's scare, Adarabioyo down and Marmoush limping off are exactly what De Zerbi did not need. But the returning creators changed the picture. Maddison gave Spurs a scorer and a tempo-setter, Marmoush gave them a second genuine threat, and Kulusevski's late cameo means the cavalry is genuinely arriving now.
Next up is the examination: Chelsea away at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Win there and this stops looking like a false dawn; lose heavily and Monday night becomes a footnote. For Coventry, a first defeat in three still leaves Lampard's promoted side above the drop zone and competitive in every game they have played.
Beyond the Final Whistle: this was not pretty for 49 minutes, but it was the night Tottenham's season finally started — two returning stars scored the goals, a substitute defender sealed it, and a team that began the night bottom of the league ended it looking up. Maddison is the difference-maker De Zerbi has been waiting for, and on this evidence Spurs' problem was never effort, it was end product. Can Spurs now go and win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday — or was Coventry at home simply the easiest win they will get all season? Let us know in the comments.
