Coventry come to life at last – are their slapstick days behind them?

After years of circling the drain, Coventry City didn’t so much drop out of the Premier League 25 years ago as face-plant through its floorboards in slapstick style. In the intervening period, they endured their first experience of the fourth tier and were forced to live as tenants in their own city, before suffering the indignity of having to go cap-in-hand to neighbouring villages, looking for sofas on which to crash. Even the more recent good times were frustrating for the Sky Blues, as they lost a Championship playoff decider on penalties and were cruelly denied a place in the 2024 FA Cup final within the space of 11 months. It was all a far cry from that joyous afternoon in 1987 when Brian “Killer” Kilcline limped up the Wembley steps to hoist the FA Cup aloft.

Given all they have had to put up with, most Coventry fans would probably have relished the prospect of seeing their team get beaten repeatedly upon their return to the Premier League, if only because it meant their arduous return to English football’s top table was finally complete. And for a while that is exactly what looked likely to happen, as they lost their opening four league games, shipping 10 goals without reply. More astute observers will have noticed that three of those matches were against Arsenal, Manchester City and Brighton, sides that currently occupy the top three places. But while they may have lost them all, Coventry were at least creating the kind of chances that they have since begun to convert with aplomb.

Following Monday night’s shellacking of a comically shambolic and charitable Newcastle side, Coventry have now put together back-to-back wins and won their first top-flight game at home since a semi-thatched John Hartson scored the only goal of their victory over Sunderland at Highfield Road in April 2001. “We have to keep very much our feet on the ground because it’s so hard in this league,” honked Frank Lampard, having seen his young and inexperienced side bag four goals against the hapless Magpies. “If we think we’ve cracked it, if we think everything is fine … well, it’s not.” Of course, Lampard is right not to lose the run of himself and Coventry have plenty of road left to run. But following a night when Jack Rudoni announced himself as the top-flight midfielder many Coventry fans suspected he might be, things are definitely looking up.

The Premier League season is still in its infancy but already shrouded in more uncertainty than any that has been played before, not least because the team currently occupying first place look far more certain to go down than any of the 19 sides propping them up. Given the signs of life being shown by the three promoted sides, the battle against relegation already looks like shaping up to be an eight- or nine-way fight, a skirmish that is likely to be eminently more entertaining and far less weird than the current phoney war being played out at the top. Of course, if historical precedent is anything to go by, there’s also every chance this is just a temporary blip and Coventry could be playing League Two football – possibly against Manchester City – again in three years’ time.

Join Rob Smyth at 7.30pm BST for updates on England 4-0 Greece (agg: 7-1) in the second leg of their Women’s World Cup qualifying playoff, while in men’s Bigger Cup Simon Burnton will be on hand for Arsenal 3-0 Lille and John Brewin will guide you through Atlético 1-0 Manchester United (8pm kick-offs).

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“Three Range Rovers come tearing into the car park. The lights are going and the sirens and I’m thinking: ‘What the [eff]!’ The window comes down and it’s Gordon. He says: ‘Right, jump in my car; we are going down to see Marvin’ … I’d chosen an evening to go along with Gordon Brown to meet Pastor Joe when they were casting out demons. The guys go up on the stage and Pastor Joe gets his hand on their head … and there is a whole lot of wailing noises going on and he shoves them down and they fall backwards. I am sitting there going” ‘What the [eff]’s going on?’ I’m there to meet Marvin and there are people falling about all over and there are six people lying on the ground” – Craig Levein claims that the former UK prime minister, a big fan of Raith Rovers, arranged a meeting where an exorcism was taking place to help Levein in his attempts to sign Trinidad and Tobago centre-back Marvin Andrews, out of contract at the time and helping in a church.

Re: the Memory Lane item on the Wales v Scotland World Cup qualifier in 1977 (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) ignited my own memory of attending that game with my Welsh mate Alwyn. Although it was supposedly a Wales home game, my impression was that there were at least three Scots for every ultimately disappointed (and furious) Welsh fan inside Anfield. That game also gives rise to a quiz question, albeit one that only those of a certain vintage would get. Who scored a goal playing for the away team on his home ground and it wasn’t an own goal? The answer, of course, is Kenny Dalglish” – John Myles.

While everyone else was either watching Coventry v Newcastle or doing something normal like having a life on Monday night, some of us were engrossed in La Liga’s Levante v Sevilla game. It was perfectly fine, if unspectacular, up until the 92nd minute … when Sevilla’s Isaac Romero got a yellow card, yet still had time to score and put Sevilla 3-2 up, get a second yellow, get sent off and watch from the sidelines as Levante grabbed an equaliser. This modern era of lots of added time doesn’t half create some wild ends to games that almost never used to happen” – Noble Francis.

I’m a bit late to this (glass houses and stones, etc) but Thursday’s Football Daily (full email edition) invited us to remember Ramon Vega. I specifically recalled the time Ron Noades, then manager as well as owner of Brentford, talked up his third-tier side’s prospects in a cup tie against Spurs with: ‘You’ve always got a chance when Vega’s in the team.’ Noades was no stranger to controversy during his time at Crystal Palace, not least when he revealed to guests at a function his favourite cheese was Primula. If that isn’t part of the fit and proper owners’ test then maybe it should be” – Ed Taylor.

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Here’s your man David Squires on … the endless growth of football vodcasts and underwhelming digital b@ntz.

In our sister newsletter, Rich Laverty explores how Japan’s academy system has supercharged their women’s team with innovative youth development that includes language programmes and special technical training.

A curious offshoot of the guilty verdict against Manchester City has been the discussion about whether Steven Gerrard will finally get the Premier League winner’s medal that is missing from his impressive CV. There was even a banner at Anfield on Sunday proclaiming the legendary Reds captain as a champion of the 2013-14 season when Gerrard – and his team – were pipped to the title in a raucous run-in. But Gerrard himself says he would turn his nose up at a title if he were offered one. “I’m not someone who’s going to sit here and say I would accept a Premier League medal or I want one that they’ve got,” he soothed. “I think I’ve come to terms that I’ve never won the [league], that I was short in that department … I’ve come to terms with the incident that happened to me at the back end of that season,” he continued, dancing around the trauma of that slip lest it be triggering. “And I’ve heard a lot of City players, a lot of City fans, celebrity fans, say: ‘You can’t take those moments away from us.’ What about the memories they’ve taken away from, not just possibly me and the team I played in, but over that period of nine or 10 years? Spurs fans, United fans, Everton fans, teams at the bottom, teams in the cups … memories that they potentially have stolen from everyone else.”

Enzo Maresca has laughed off criticism of the way his Manchester City players shunned staying humble at Liverpool and celebrated in the giddy style at full-time. “We won 3-0 at Anfield. What do you want us to do? Even if it was 1-0, it would be exactly the same,” he honked, before accepting that he understands why his team are taking pelters. “If I am an Arsenal fan or [Manchester] United fan and you are a City fan, I say: ‘Hey my friend, you cheat.’ So it is probably more tough for them but we were happy inside the changing room.”

Netflix will show every match of the 2030 Air Miles World Cup to audiences in Spain and Andorra. “As part of the agreement, one game per match-day will be available to watch for free in