Tottenham may have ended their six-game winless run with a 3-1 victory over Coventry City, but they lacked the electric, dominant edge they had displayed in recent games.Roberto De Zerbi had repeatedly insisted that his new-look Tottenham team – almost half of which was replaced during an expensive summer – were not a team yet. It was his explanation for a miserable six-game winless start to the 2026/27 Premier League season.Then came a midweek trip to Marbella, where De Zerbi ordered a social media blackout. We have no idea what actually happened behind those closed doors, but judging by the result that followed, somebody might have cast a spell on this lot.Tottenham returned home to beat Coventry City 3-1, finally ending that winless run. More importantly, there were signs of a team beginning to finally form. The result was deserved, and there were encouraging individual displays, but it was still Tottenham’s least convincing performance of their recent run of games. Monday 19th October Premier League TottenhamTottenham3|1CoventryCoventry Saturday 10th October Premier League Manchester UnitedManchester United1|1TottenhamTottenham Saturday 19th September Premier League TottenhamTottenham2|3Aston VillaAston Villa Saturday 12th September Premier League TottenhamTottenham0|0EvertonEverton Saturday 5th September Premier League Nottingham ForestNottingham Forest0|0TottenhamTottenham Saturday 29th August Premier League TottenhamTottenham0|2NewcastleNewcastle Saturday 22nd August Premier League BrentfordBrentford3|0TottenhamTottenhamCredit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramTottenham created zero big chances against CoventryDe Zerbi made several tactical tweaks to his starting XI – one that had seen James Maddison start for the club for the first time in 536 days and Dejan Kulusevski back into the matchday squad after 526 days – and there were moments when the players looked unsure of their new roles, lacking the cohesion they had shown in recent games.Tottenham had previously started matches with real intensity, although that faded as the games progressed. The 3 results before Coventry are probably the best examples: Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool. Against Coventry, though, that early dominance never really arrived.Instead, Spurs did the far more effective job – score goals. And all three goals were from outside the box. Maddison opened the scoring in the 14th minute with a brilliant first-time curler that found the top corner, before Omar Marmoush opened his Spurs account with a second-half strike and Ben Davies settled matters in stoppage time with a trivela.Not bad for a team that had spent much of the season making a meal of scoring the simplest tap-ins and drawing criticism for its finishing.Maddison’s opener was worth just 0.05 expected goals (xG), while Tottenham finished the match with only 0.86 xG in total. That was their lowest figure across their previous 4 Premier League games.There is another number worth looking at. Tottenham had created more big chances than their opponents in almost every game this season, with the opening-day defeat to Brentford and the goalless draw against Everton among the exceptions. Against Coventry, they failed to create a single big chance.It was only the third time this season that Spurs had failed to outperform their opponents in that category. Not something many had seen coming against a newly promoted side, especially after Tottenham had managed to create more big chances than Man United and Liverpool in recent weeks.Even having a natural number 10 in the starting XI for the first time this season – in Maddison – did not help Spurs’ case. But that statistic alone does not tell the full story, because De Zerbi’s side still had a few promising attacking spells, that unfortunately, did not count as clear-cut opportunities.This is exactly why we watch the actual game with our eyes rather than simply read the numbers on a page. Ask anyone who watched the match, and they will tell you how much improved Tottenham looked as a unit with Maddison in the side. Almost every build-up went through the England midfielder, who seemed to always find the right pass and make sensible decisions under pressure. That creative presence had been missing in previous games, when primarily-a-number 8-Conor Gallagher was asked to fill the number 10 role.Coventry did not change De Zerbi’s basic principlesFor all the differences in Tottenham’s performance, De Zerbi has not suddenly abandoned the principles that define his football. The Italian is known for demanding that his players adapt to his style, and the Coventry game was no exception, even if the attacking patterns and how they set up was different.Spurs continued to build from the back, dominate possession, press high and take plenty of shots. Those fundamentals remained in place, just as they had in the games before their trip to Marbella.There was not a dramatic difference in possession or shots on target compared with Tottenham’s previous games. De Zerbi’s side still saw plenty of the ball and repeatedly tried to trouble the opposition goalkeeper. The difference against Coventry was that some of those efforts finally had enough quality to beat him.That is exactly what Tottenham need to do to get on a run of wins: show more confidence and class in front of goal, and none of the xG, big chances created or cohesion will matter.READ MORE: Tottenham’s three-goal Coventry win masks a concern Roberto De Zerbi cannot ignore – Spurs WebThe post Why Tottenham’s bad stats vs Coventry prove they should be pushing for Europe appeared first on Spurs Web.