Coventry City finally got their Premier League campaign up and running with a 1-0 win away at Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.
A hard-fought Midlands clash at the City Ground was decided in the 55th minute when Jay Dasilva expertly controlled a long ball from goalkeeper Carl Rushworth before calmly slotting the ball beyond Matz Sels.
That was Dasilva’s first-ever goal for Coventry, and the Sky Blues’ first top-flight strike in 25 years, since Mustapha Hadji’s brace in a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa in May 2001.
Forest pushed hard for an equaliser, coming close in the 77th minute when Igor Jesus beat Rushworth, only to see his effort cleared off the line in acrobatic fashion by Bobby Thomas. Jesus thought he’d equalised in the final few minutes, but saw his goal disallowed by VAR for an apparent clip on Caleb Yirenkyi.
Ethan Pinnock leads huge defensive effort
Heading into this match pointless and goalless in the Premier League and on a run of four straight defeats in all competitions, Coventry needed a reaction. Frank Lampard would have wanted a much more resolute performance, in particular, having watched his side leak five goals at home to Brighton last week, followed by a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the EFL Cup.
The Sky Blues certainly delivered on this front, finally keeping their first clean sheet of the season, and it’s Ethan Pinnock who will walk away with a huge amount of the credit.
The 33-year-old arrived from Brentford in the summer to add his considerable experience to the Coventry backline, and after spending the start of the campaign watching goals go in, he played a key role in keeping them out here.
Pinnock made a match-high 18 defensive contributions at the City Ground, translating to 11 clearances, five blocks and two interceptions. He also won four of his seven ground duels in a performance that saw him throw everything in front of the Forest attack to preserve a desperately craved clean sheet.
Ethan Pinnock’s defensive actions vs Nottingham Forest
Of course, Pinnock was just one cog in an impressive Coventry defensive machine. Bobby Thomas made a vital goal line clearance, alongside eight clearances, two blocks, a tackle, two interceptions and three recoveries. He also showed incredible composure on the ball, completing all but one of his 32 passes.
Young Stephen Mfuni showed calmness beyond his years as well, with the 18-year-old winning all four of his aerial duels and making some vital interventions at key moments. And all of that is without mentioning the wing-backs or midfielders in front of the backline, all of which combined to mean Rushworth had just two saves to make throughout the entire match — both coming in the first half.
But it was Pinnock who set the standard for Lampard’s men. It’s a standard they must now meet repeatedly going forward if they’re to compete in the Premier League.
Worrying signs from Liam Delap
Many eyebrows were raised when Nottingham Forest threw a club-record £50m at Chelsea for the services of Liam Delap in the summer. For context, that’s more than what Chelsea paid to sign Cole Palmer from Manchester City in 2023.
For that price, Forest were getting a striker who managed just three goals in 49 appearances across all competitions for Chelsea last season, and only one goal in 28 Premier League outings. His only double-figure goal return came in 2024/25, when he netted 12 in 37 for a relegated Ipswich, two of which came from the penalty spot.
To his credit, Delap made a promising start to his Forest career, making a nuisance of himself off the bench in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool, while scoring the opener in a 2-1 win over Aston Villa last week.
But on Saturday, there were worrying signs that Delap is reverting back to his 2025/26 type.
The former Manchester City youngster attempted a match-high four shots against Coventry, but failed to find the target with any of them, taking wild swings at the ball when a calm head was required.
Liam Delap’s shot map vs Coventry City
Delap was also dispossessed three times, while he was booked in the 59th minute for needlessly shoving Bobby Thomas to the ground as Forest cleared a Coventry set-piece. That booking means Delap now has more yellow cards (2) for Forest than he does goals (1), which is not ideal for a striker who ended the 2025/26 Premier League campaign with one goal and four yellow cards.
Oliver Glasner became desperate for a goal as the game wore on and eventually chose to put Chris Wood up front alongside Delap. The result was a predictably ugly game of long balls, headers and elbows that didn’t trouble Coventry, with Forest’s biggest threat proving to be the Brazilian, Igor Jesus.
It’s too early to make any judgements on Delap, but it’s performances like this that make people accuse Forest of vastly overpaying when there were much cheaper and more clinical options available across Europe.