Coventry City Football Club – Members of the Football League for over 100 years, have had a record-breaking start to their season. Winning 7 and drawing 4 sees Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues top the table heading into this weekend’s fixtures. But how has this happened?

Super Frank

It’s coming up to a year since Frank Lampard took the managerial role at Coventry replacing fan-favourite Mark Robins at the helm. Lampard started his coaching career at Derby County in the 18/19 season, where he led them to Wembley but ultimately falling just short of the Premier League dream. With the likes of Mason Mount, Harry Wilson and Fikayo Tomori all on loan, Lampard inherited a young, hungry side and was praised for his attacking style of football. He then became head coach at his former club Chelsea, where he led them to a top 4 finish before being sacked the following year in January 2021. A year passed before Frank was back involved in football again, this time the manager at Everton. Whilst keeping the Toffees up in the 21/22 season, a lot of Evertonians began to grow frustrated by Frank’s football and he was sacked in January 2023. After another brief spell as Interim manager at Chelsea at the end of the 22/23 season, it now leaves Frank where he is today – Top of the championship with no signs of slowing down

Recent Results

It’s been nothing short of a perfect October for the Sky Blues. 4 wins, 3 away from home and only 1 goal conceded, many couldn’t have wished for a run like this. A 4-0 dismantling of Millwall at the Den proved to be a statement to the rest of the Championship before they travelled to Sheffield Wednesday where they went one better and put 5 past Ethan Horvath in the Wednesday net. Coventry then returned to the CBS Arena where they picked up a hard fought 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers thanks to volleys from Victor Torp and Brandon Thomas-Asante. After 4 wins in a row Coventry then visited Fratton Park in what proved to be a gritty performance down on the south coast but one they came away 2-1 winners from.

Defensively Solid

All the talk this season has been around the Coventry attack – and rightly so – but their defensive numbers are amongst some of the best in the league. The Sky Blues have conceded the joint 2nd least amount of goals in the division whilst picking up the joint most clean sheets out of the entire 72. Frank predominantly employs a back 4 with Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching at the heart of their defence. Both centre backs are in the third season at Coventry and are forming a formidable partnership at the back. With Jay Dasilva on the left of the back 4, Coventry have a Welsh International in their side, recently lining up to face England at Wembley. Dasilva has been a staple in the Sky Blues side since 2023 where he is excelling. On the right hand side is Milan Van Ewijjk whose attacking numbers are not to be winced at. Registering 5 assists already this season, he is one of the most dangerous full backs in the league whilst also keeping them out behind him.

Brilliant In Attack

There aren’t many words to describe Coventry’s output this season other than utterly sensational. Registering 31 goals in 11 Championship games this season, goals have not been a problem for Frank’s side. With both Brandon Thomas-Asante and Haji Wright recording 8 goals already this season, it seems that Coventry aren’t only mounting a promotion battle but also an internal golden boot race. Thomas-Asante, a Ghanaian international, had a relatively average season at West Brom in 23/24 and struggled last season only registering 6 goals in all comps. However, this season he has hit the heights that the management team saw in him and is scoring goals for fun. His partner at the top of the pitch, Haji Wright was signed from Antalyaspor in the Summer of 2023 for 7.7 million pounds (BBC Sport). Having hit double figures in goals for the past 2 seasons in a blue shirt, Wright is nearly at that milestone already before we have hit November. At 27 years of age and 193cm in height, he is proving to be too hot to handle for the majority of the Championship defences.

As the fixtures start to build up for Coventry ahead of the hectic Christmas scheduling, it is going to be a challenge for Lampard and his team to maintain this current form they are in. But with 3 home games in the next 5 against some teams down towards the bottom of the table, it gives Coventry a great incentive to keep on winning games of football and get them closer to achieving that dream of returning to the Premier League for the first time in 25 years.