Four games in, no goals
Tottenham still haven’t scored in the Premier League this season. Four matches, two points, two goalless draws against Nottingham Forest and Everton. The club had never started a league campaign like this since it was founded.
The clock is now at 407 minutes without a league goal. You have to go back to September 2006 to find Spurs going four straight top-flight games without scoring. In the history of the competition, only one side has made a worse start: Crystal Palace in 2017-2018, who went seven games without finding the net.
What makes it stranger is that the club actually spent. Roberto De Zerbi had kept Tottenham up last season after back-to-back 17th-place finishes, and the board backed him properly in the summer window. The returns so far are thin.
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Five teams have started like this, none went down
Only five sides have opened a Premier League season without scoring in their first four games. None of them were relegated. Sheffield Wednesday, in 1994-1995, finished lowest of that group with 13th place.
The most useful comparison is the most recent one. Aston Villa waited until game five of the 2025-2026 season to get off the mark. Then came fourth place in the league and a Europa League title. Spurs will happily take that trajectory.
The paradox is right there in the table. Two points without a goal also means the defence has held firm. One strike would be enough to turn several of those draws into wins.
Coventry are having a worse time of it
Promoted Coventry have managed to combine both problems. No points, no goals after four matches. Frank Lampard’s side are the only team in the division in that position.
Two of those four games came away at Arsenal and Manchester City, which softens the picture a little. The 1-0 home loss to Hull City and, more notably, the 5-0 hammering by Brighton at the Coventry Building Society Arena have done the damage. Taiwo Awoniyi’s second-half red card came when the score was already 2-0.
Coventry are now the eighth promoted team to lose their first four Premier League matches. Of the previous seven, only one survived: Southampton in 2012-2013. Across all clubs, 18 teams have suffered that same fate and eight have lived to tell the tale, the last being Everton in 2024-2025.
There are still 34 rounds to go. Spurs are hunting a first goal, Coventry a first point.
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