The bare statistic is bleak: Coventry City are only the second team in Premier League history to lose their first four games of the season without scoring in any of them. “And yet …” will be the enduring message from Frank Lampard.
And yet they have caused problems for opposition teams – even at points when down to 10 men here against Brighton. And yet they have already faced three of the top flight’s European contingent. And yet they are not playing that badly. But they simply cannot find the point, or even the goal, that would give their confidence a much-needed boost. And it does not take long for a promoted club’s relegation fears to turn realistic.
Having seen his side ship another five goals, it will take some effort from Lampard to now lift his troops and the team’s fans. Goals from Charalampos Kostoulas, Malick Yalcouyé, Lewis Dunk and Yasin Ayari were all moments of individual brilliance. But there was also a sense of Coventry self-destruction, with few complaints over Taiwo Awoniyi’s red card for an elbow into Maxim De Cuyper’s face, nor the penalty conceded by Bobby Thomas for Pascal Gross to score the visitors’ third.
The scoreline certainly lent weight to Fabian Hürzeler’s recent dismissal of Brighton’s supposed attacking concerns. His side have scored more goals and created more big chances than any other team in the Premier League this season, prompting the head coach to last week snap “I definitely feel that” when asked if his side had adequately replaced the departed Danny Welbeck.
His faith had been tested by the visitors hitting the target just once from seven attempts in a dominant opening 20 minutes, but a moment of mastery from Kostoulas broke the deadlock on 35 minutes. When Olivier Boscagli’s cross was insufficiently cleared, the teenage Greece striker showed great poise to control an aerial ball with his foot, nod it between two defenders and then fire into the bottom corner for his first Premier League goal of the season.
That Brighton were not already behind by that stage was thanks only to Bart Verbruggen, who produced two excellent saves to deny Jack Rudoni, when palming his volley to safety as a host of Coventry players waited to pounce, and then turning his header over the bar.
Lampard publicly urged his players: “We have to have belief” during the half-time interval, but then followed two minutes that instantly extinguished Coventry’s hopes.
First came Brighton’s second goal, when Yalcouyé broke in behind the Coventry defence, and the Ivorian’s pace kept everyone at bay before he calmly slotted past Carl Rushworth. Moments later, the hosts were reduced to 10 men.
At first glance, contact appeared accidental between Awoniyi and De Cuyper. But, to the credit of the referee, Tony Harrington, he spotted the striker had led with his elbow into De Cuyper’s face, prompting a straight red card. As if to compound matters, the stadium announcer chose to use that bleak period to inform fans of train cancellations that meant there would be no departures from the stadium for 90 minutes after the final whistle.
Thomas’s challenge to bring down Kostoulas inside his own box was as clear a penalty as will be awarded as season, and Gross duly stuck the spot-kick into the bottom corner.
By the time Dunk sealed the rout with the finest strike of his career, smashed into the top corner from 35 yards, the mass home exodus had already begun. It was an outrageous hit, which was followed in added time by yet another excellent finish from Ayari, curled from range into the bottom corner.
The only other team to lose their four opening Premier League games without scoring was Crystal Palace in 2017-18. Palace ended that season in 11th, but they did need to pull the emergency Roy Hodgson cord. Might he be required in the Midlands?
