Tottenham Hotspur ended their wait for a maiden Premier League victory of 2026/27 by beating Coventry City on Monday evening.

Here are our Scout Notes from the match.

A WIN’S A WIN

Spurs are off the mark, then, but even Roberto De Zerbi admitted after full-time that his side have “played much better in other games”.

Still, the Lilywhites will take the three points and run, having not got results they probably merited in other games (a win last week?).

The hosts failed to have a single ‘big chance’, with all three goals coming from outside the box. Attacking-wise, things are still taking time to gel.

Defensively, it wasn’t too bad from Spurs, with Coventry’s goal their only shot on target. It was a self-inflicted concession, too, with Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.9m) losing possession high up the field. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto (£4.8m) had an early decent chance but Spurs kept their visitors’ xG down (as Coventry did to their hosts), and the north Londoners’ underlying defensive numbers remain positive over the last six Gameweeks:

MADDISON’S FIRST START + KULUSEVSKI RETURNS

A recalled Omar Marmoush (£7.0m) opened his Spurs account and long-serving defender Ben Davies (£3.9m) added gloss to the scoreline but the evening belonged to two long-sidelined teammates.

James Maddison (£6.2m) was making his first league start since the back end of 2024/25 and crowned the occasion with a goal. And what a goal, too, a whipped effort into the top corner from outside the area, following a cut-back from Mohammed Kudus (£6.5m).

At his best, Maddison can be – and has been – a 20-returns-a-season pick. It’s the fitness, not that ability, that has been lacking. He’s actually been back from his ACL since April, but there have been niggles, setbacks and precautions taken since then. His pre-season was decimated, while he even lost days during the recent international break.

Can he stay fit for the upcoming run? Recent history suggests that remains questionable, as tempting as it is.

“Yeah, I hoped [to start]. I spoke to the gaffer about [it] this week and feeling like the right moment for me to go back into the starting XI after a bit of a stop-start start to the season. I just wanted to play well, I just wanted to show my quality and show what the team’s missed in the last 18 months, or whatever it is, from my last start. The gaffer asked me to play and said he wanted to enjoy watching me from the side, so hopefully I did that. And obviously, a goal like that is always nice.

“That’s where I operate best, in the pockets, right in between the lines. With the extra midfielders on the inside, with Archie [Gray] and Marmoush to the side of me, I had a bit of license and a bit of freedom to drop deep and help Sandro Tonali in the build-up as well, which I like to do. So, quite roaming. I was popping up on the right, the left and centrally. And that’s where I’m at my best, I feel: between the lines and being able to pick up the pockets of space where I feel I can affect the game at different moments. That’s where the goal came from.” – James Maddison

In more feel-good stuff, Dejan Kulusevski (£6.5m) made it onto the field for the first time in 17 months. It’ll likely be a while before he’s ready to start, and he was limited to a 10-minute cameo here.

“Listen, Kudus, I think he was playing well, I think he could finish the game, but I thought of Kulusevski just for the fans. Just for the fans because they waited [for] him on the pitch and in the last 5-10 minutes of extra time, we needed the support of the fans. And they are fantastic with Kulusevski, with us. They suffered too much in the last two, three, four seasons.” – Roberto De Zerbi

DE ZERBI EXPLAINS FORMATION CHANGE

The quote from Maddison above has already touched on Spurs’ tactics for this clash.

De Zerbi opted for a back three, as you can see in the formation below. Marmoush was often more of ’10’ alongside Maddison and Gray, in a 3-1-5-1, but it was a fluid set-up, with Maddison, as he said above, roaming about.

Above image from BBC Sport

De Zerbi revealed that the formation had almost been forced upon him, so it’ll be interesting to see what he does in Gameweek 8. You wonder if Maddison would have started, too, had any of the below names not missed training last week.

“We played three at the back. I want to explain why: because of the injured players in the midfield position. Conor Gallagher came back two days ago, and at the beginning of the week, the medical staff told me maybe he could be not available to play. Bergvall was injured. Mateus Fernandes worked just the last two days because of his [newborn] son. I thought three at the back was the best solution to defend the counter-attack, to have more control of the game, and for that, I’m happy, because we didn’t concede a counter-attack.

“I prepared the game three at the back, one midfielder and three players in the pocket: Marmoush, James Maddison and Archie Gray. Normally, these are three totally different players: Marmoush more an attacker, Maddison more playing in the pocket, for the link with the defenders, with Tonali, and he did, and Archie Gray to go in overlapping and underlapping with Kudus. I think two players [in those pockets] they scored.

“Robertson played as a winger, and in the first half played very well. Kudus also, I liked his performance, and especially in the second half, because in the first half I think it was too difficult to find the space. Solanke played a good second half.” – Roberto De Zerbi

NEW INJURY FEARS ASSUAGED + UDOGIE UPDATE

Marmoush, Andy Robertson (£4.4m) and Tosin Adarabioyo (£4.4m) all appeared to be forced off in the second half but De Zerbi eased concerns after the match.

“No, no, no, I think there are no injuries, nothing important.” – Roberto De Zerbi

Destiny Udogie (£4.4m) did miss out, however.

“Destiny Udogie played 70 minutes [against Manchester United] and suffered a problem of [the] knee and we didn’t take a risk alongside the medical staff.” – Roberto De Zerbi, via the Spurs website

De Zerbi had revealed on Sunday that Savio (£6.5m) and Lucas Bergvall (£5.3m) had joined the injury list for “weeks”.

VAN HECKE GETS CONSOLATION DEFCON POINTS + THOMAS DELIVERS AGAIN

The busted clean sheet meant that van Hecke’s owners were left clinging onto the hope of some consolation DefCon points.

The Dutchman, after two false starts, finally achieved that in added time.

Bobby Thomas (£4.0m) also hit the required threshold, doing so for the fifth time in 2026/27. He was close on the other two occasions, too.

The Spurs formation switch was good for Sandro Tonali (£5.3m). As Spurs’ sole disrupting, deep-sitting midfielder, he racked up more defensive contributions than anyone.

ANOTHER ENCOURAGING COVENTRY DISPLAY

“I thought from the first moment, our work, our threat, the belief within the team, how we defended low. It takes them two outstanding world-class goals to score their goals. Everybody in the stadium felt the game.” – Frank Lampard

No third win on the spin for Coventry, then, but not a bad display by any means. Defensively, they were pretty solid, and only undone by three outside-of-the-box efforts.

While the first two Spurs goals were fine strikes, Carl Rushworth (£4.5m) would surely have been disappointed not to have saved the efforts from Marmoush and, especially, Davies.

Rushworth, indeed, is – in Opta’s eyes – the Premier League’s worst-performing ‘keeper of 2026/27, based on xG prevented:

Further forward, the Sky Blues were game, if limited. Jack Rudoni (£4.9m), a penalty taker in Gameweek 6, furthered his case as the go-to sub-£5.0m midfielder with a goal here, finishing at the second attempt after van Hecke’s giveaway.