James Maddison waited 18 months for a moment like this, and it took him 14 minutes to produce it. Taking Mohammed Kudus’ pass first time, 20 yards from goal, Tottenham’s No 10 arced a right-foot shot over Carl Rushworth and into the top corner — then threw an imaginary dart and kissed the badge in front of a Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd that had almost forgotten what he looked like in the starting XI.
It was his first competitive start since May 2025, it came against the club he grew up supporting in the city where he was born, and it set up a 3-1 win over Coventry City on Monday night that finally gave Roberto De Zerbi’s side their first Premier League victory of the season.
“I just wanted to play well and show my abilities, show what the team has missed the last 18 months,” Maddison said afterwards. Jamie Carragher’s verdict was blunter: “He still has a bit of magic in his boots.”
A 20-yard answer to 18 months of waiting
The absence was brutal in its layering. An anterior cruciate ligament injury in pre-season wiped out most of last season. When he finally returned this August, he fractured his shoulder in the opening-weekend defeat at Brentford. By the time he walked out against Coventry, Spurs had cycled through the wreckage of three sackings — Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor — before De Zerbi arrived in March.
Dominic Solanke had a goal ruled out for offside on 18 minutes and Jack Rudoni levelled four minutes after the break, becoming the first Coventry player to score in consecutive league games since John Hartson in April 2001. But Omar Marmoush spun Milan van Ewijk and curled in his first goal for the club on 58 minutes, and Ben Davies added a third deep into stoppage time after a goalkeeping error.
All three goals came from outside the box — making Spurs the first Premier League side to manage that in a single match since Fulham against Leicester in May 2023. Then, with three minutes left, De Zerbi sent on Dejan Kulusevski, 526 days after the knee injury he suffered on 11 May 2025.
“I thought for Kulusevski just for the fans, because they wanted him on the pitch,” De Zerbi said. “They deserve to celebrate many, many wins.” On his two returning midfielders, he added that they “are different players, different talents” who bring “a different atmosphere” to the dressing room.
What Spurs lost, measured in numbers
The scale of Maddison’s absence is best read in Tottenham’s results without him. The numbers explain why a single 20-yard strike felt like a structural event rather than a nice night out:
- His previous Premier League goal was in February 2025, a 1-0 win over Manchester United. Spurs have won 12 of 57 league games since.
- Since his last start, against Liverpool in late April 2025, Tottenham have won 11 of 49 league matches and lost 23.
- They had taken six wins from their previous 37 home league games.
- Since the start of 2024-25 they have dropped 30 points from winning positions at home.
- Maddison has scored 21 Premier League goals from outside the box since August 2018 — more than any other player.
That last line matters more than it looks. A team generating 0.87 expected goals across 90 minutes, as Spurs did here, needs someone who can manufacture a goal from nothing. For 18 months, they did not have one.
Chelsea next — and the fragility that remains
The margin flattered them. Spurs had been winless in their first six league games and another defeat would have left them a match away from the worst winless start in their Premier League history. The win lifts them to 16th on six points, level with Coventry but ahead on goal difference.
Coventry, back in the top flight after 25 years away, arrived on the back of two straight wins and chasing a third in succession for the first time since February 1998. Frank Lampard’s side were not outclassed, and he said as much: watch the game cold, he argued, and you would not know which side had spent the last quarter-century in the Premier League.
De Zerbi has taken his squad to Marbella for bonding work, a method that served him twice at Marseille. Next comes Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening, where 0.87 expected goals will not be enough. But for the first time in a long while, Tottenham have the player who can make that number irrelevant.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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