Tottenham 3-1 Coventry: Maddison and Marmoush lift Spurs out of the relegation zone

Tottenham moved out of the relegation zone as they ended their wait for a first Premier League win of the season with a 3-1 win over Coventry City.

Roberto De Zerbi’s men took the lead in stunning style as James Maddison headed home from the edge of the area to mark his first start in 18 months.

But there was a familiar unconvincing nature to most of Spurs’ games thereafter and the home fans would have been forgiven for wondering if they were watching the same old frustrating story when Jack Rudoni equalized four minutes into the second half.

But Omar Marmoush allayed any such fears just before the hour mark, scoring his first goal for the club in the far corner before Ben Davies’ injury-time strike completed the scoring to lift Tottenham to 16th, one place above Coventry.

Frank Lampard’s visitors went into the game for a third win in a row and they started brightly, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto going close early on when he saw a close-range shot deflected over the crossbar.

Coventry’s failure to find an early goal was punished by a player from their academy, Maddison marking his first start since May last year with a delicious effort into the top left corner.

Tottenham looked to create clear-cut opportunities to double that advantage, although Dominic Solanke squandered a great chance to do so by firing in a costly display of drunkenness when Rudoni restored parity shortly after the second-half restart.

Rudoni made the most of terrible defending from the hosts, reacting quickest after Brandon Thomas-Asante headed down into the six-yard box, the midfielder tipping his effort beyond Antonin Kinski at the near post.

Sandro Tonali scored a pair of efforts as Tottenham pressed to regain the lead, before Marmoush produced the required precision to open Spurs’ account in style.

The Egyptian caught Milan van Ewijk carelessly on the arm as he turned on the edge of the area and curled an unerring shot beyond Carl Rushworth, Coventry fuming as their appeals were turned down by referee Andy Madley and then VAR.

Marmoush was then joined by Tosin Adarabioyo and Mohammed Kudus and appeared with obvious injuries. While those problems may have caused De Zerbi to worry, Dejan Kulusevs had reason to celebrate as he got Spurs over the line in his long-awaited return from injury.

Late Coventry pressure wore down home nerves, but De Zerby’s Spurs made the points safe when an effort with the edge of his boot deflected off Rushworth to seal a hope-boosting victory.

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