By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-09-14 15:33:02 | Updated at 2026-09-19 11:41:57
4 days ago
Tottenham are yet to score, Coventry are yet to score or record a point, and Aston Villa are starting slowly again. But what does a bad start really mean, and can those teams learn anything from the slowest starts in Premier League history?
That optimism we feel at the start of a new season can be intoxicating.
Whatever happened last season, there has been a whole summer to correct things. New signings, possibly a new manager, and new possibilities. What could go wrong?
Oh, everything? Terrific.
We’re only in mid-September, and yet for some, that optimism has largely melted away and been replaced by anxiety. A fear of what the campaign could now become, and how incredibly far away the end of May already feels.
Coventry City had every reason to look forward to the 2026-27 season, their first back in the Premier League since 2001, and coming off the back of a superb title-winning campaign in the Championship. The Sky Blues were riding the crest of a wave.
Now, though, they have fallen off their surf board and are frantically trying to keep their heads above water as the ferocity of the top flight becomes increasingly apparent.
Frank Lampard’s side are the only Premier League team without a single point this season after four games, and they are yet to even score a goal.
In fairness, two of their games have been away to the two strongest sides in the league, Arsenal and Manchester City. Coventry were actually pretty impressive in the latter of those matches, too, and probably deserved something from it.
However, a 1-0 loss at home to fellow promoted side Hull City and a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Sunday were less understandable, and the nature of their humbling to the Seagulls will have brought stark realisation that the Premier League is a tricky business.
Taiwo Awoniyi’s red card in the second half certainly did not help, but Lampard’s men were already 2-0 down by then, and when Lewis Dunk is bending efforts into the top corner from all of 30 yards, you know it isn’t going to be your day.
Coventry have become the eighth promoted team to lose their first four games of a Premier League season. Of the previous seven, only one managed to avoid relegation: Southampton in 2012-13.
Looking at all teams to lose their first four in a Premier League campaign, it’s a little more comforting for the Sky Blues. There have been 18 occurrences prior to Coventry, and eight of those have managed to survive relegation in the end, the most recent of which was Everton in 2024-25.
We are not here to rub it in, though. We are here to try and provide hope. Somewhere in our sea of Premier League records, surely, we can find something to cheer up struggling teams?
For Coventry, look no further than Crystal Palace from the 2017-18 season. Under the management of another Frank (de Boer), the Eagles didn’t score or win a single point in their first five games. The Dutchman was sacked and replaced by Roy Hodgson, but the run didn’t quite end there. Palace went seven games without a goal or point in total.
Having said that, the Hodgson effect ultimately worked. Palace not only avoided relegation, but remarkably finished 11th. We’re not suggesting Coventry sack their own Frank, by the way. He has surely earned enough goodwill after his astonishing job to get them into the top flight in the first place. Also, coaxing 79-year-old Hodgson out of retirement might be tricky (but probably not impossible knowing him).
The other joint-longest run at the start of a Premier League season without a point belongs to Portsmouth, who failed to win any of their first seven in 2009-10. They did score three times in that run, but unlike Palace, failed to improve much across the campaign. Pompey finished bottom on 19 points, and though they were deducted nine points for going into administration, they would have still finished bottom even without that.
Norwich City lost their first six in the 2021-22 season, and finished bottom on 22 points, while a further three teams have lost their first five in the Premier League: Southampton in 1998-99, Sunderland in 2005-06, and Wolves last season. Saints stayed up (17th), but Sunderland and Wolves both disappeared to the Championship after finishing 20th.
Coventry head to Nottingham Forest next weekend to try and finally get on the board, but they’re not alone in their relatively joyless start to the season.
Things were supposed to be different for Tottenham. After back-to-back 17th-place finishes in the Premier League, Roberto De Zerbi kept them up by the skin of their teeth last season, and the club backed him in the transfer window this summer.
However, football is rarely that simple, and so far, Spurs are very much finding that out.
Four games into the new campaign and, like Coventry, they are yet to score a goal. They do at least have two points to their name after 0-0 draws against Nottingham Forest and Everton, but that familiar sinking feeling is already dousing pre-season optimism for Tottenham.
It is the first time in the club’s history that they have failed to score in their first four league games of a campaign and, as mentioned, only that 2017-18 Palace side have endured a longer start to a Premier League season without scoring (7 games).
In fact, it has been 407 minutes since Spurs last scored in the Premier League, and is the first time they have failed to score in four successive Premier League matches since September 2006.
Apart from Spurs and Coventry this season, there have been five previous examples of a team failing to score in their first four Premier League games of a season. As well as the aforementioned Palace campaign, there was Sheffield Wednesday in 1994-95, Newcastle United in 2005-06, Swansea City in 2011-12, and Aston Villa last season. Crucially, none of them were relegated. In fact, the lowest any of them finished was 13th (Sheff Wed 94-95).
That should provide plenty of hope for Spurs. It took until MD5 for Villa to score their first goal of 2025-26, and they eventually went on to have a more than stellar campaign, finishing fourth and winning the UEFA Europa League.
That said, we should also mention Villa of this season. Unai Emery has performed miracles in his time in the Midlands, and he may have to do it again after his squad was decimated by key sales in the summer.
Perhaps unsurprisingly as a result, they have started very slowly, with just one point from their first four games, and that was from a 0-0 draw at promoted Hull. Defeats to Brighton, Arsenal and Forest have left them in the relegation zone, with a point fewer than they had this time last season.
It’s the fourth time Villa have started a Premier League season without winning any of their first four games, after 1992-93, 1997-98, and 2025-26.
At least they’re off the mark for goals this time, though, with Alysson’s equaliser against Forest on Saturday their first league strike of the campaign. Again, though, Villa can use their marked improvement after this point last season as optimism fuel.
Fulham’s particularly slow start was given a boost on Saturday with a well-earned draw at Liverpool, their first point of the season. Though Álvaro Arbeloa’s side remain in the bottom three, they can look to build on that performance and silence those who had started to doubt them after opening with three defeats to Chelsea, Sunderland and Palace.
Ultimately for everyone, it’s four games down, 34 to go. Coventry will want their first points as soon as possible, while something as simple as scoring a goal could be enough to unluck Tottenham’s potential.
There’s plenty of time to restore positive vibes and have a great time between now and the end of May. Perhaps the teams who should be worried don’t even know it yet.
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