Pre-match Talking Points
Match talking points will appear here before kick-off.
Team Talking Points
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1Coventry are back in the Premier League for the first time since 2001, having won the Championship last season under Frank Lampard, who signed a new deal to 2029 in the summer. Treat them warmly – a generation of Sky Blues fans has waited a very long time for this.
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2It's been a bumpy ride. They're 17th with 9 points from 10 games, and they're the only side in the league yet to draw a match: three wins, seven defeats. Coventry don't really do 'boring nil-nil', which is either thrilling or exhausting depending on your blood pressure.
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3The wins have been good ones, mind – a 4-1 over Newcastle, a 1-0 at Nottingham Forest and a 3-1 over Sunderland. Last time out they lost 3-1 at Everton, where Yann Gboho scored his first goal for the club in a game they'd started the better side.
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4The low point was a 5-0 home hammering by Brighton back in September, with Taiwo Awoniyi sent off. Probably best not to bring that one up unless you've got a very forgiving Coventry fan in front of you.
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5Next up is enormous: Crystal Palace at home on Saturday 21 November. Palace are bottom of the table, so a win would give Coventry real breathing space above the relegation zone. Call it a 'six-pointer' and you'll fit right in.
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Top thing to say down the pub
No draws all season – Coventry either win or lose, and honestly I respect it. Palace at home after the break feels massive, though.
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Avoid saying
"Lampard couldn't hack it at Chelsea, he'll get them relegated" – he's the man who brought them back to the top flight after 25 years. Coventry fans adore him, and you will not win that argument.
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1Palace go into the international break bottom of the Premier League after a 3-1 home defeat to Liverpool on Sunday. Eddie Nketiah's stoppage-time penalty was a consolation, not a comeback. Being bottom in November isn't fatal, but it is the sort of thing fans prefer you don't mention first.
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2Manager Pierre Sage is under serious pressure, and the reports this week say his time could be up. Former Brentford and Spurs boss Thomas Frank is the bookies' favourite to replace him, with The Telegraph naming him as the frontrunner. Nothing's official yet, so 'I hear Frank's in the frame' sounds well-informed, while 'Sage has gone' might be a bit premature.
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3This slump has been building. A 5-0 hammering by Brighton a few weeks ago is the result Palace fans really don't want to relive, mostly because it was Brighton, their fiercest rivals. If you bring it up, expect a long stare.
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4There were glimmers against Liverpool. Jørgen Strand Larsen had a goal chalked off for offside by VAR and Yeremy Pino hit the crossbar, so it wasn't a total surrender. Palace fans will tell you the margins have gone against them, and on Sunday they had a point.
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5Don't forget this is the club that won the FA Cup in 2025, their first major trophy ever. Going from Wembley glory to the bottom of the table in about 18 months is a very Premier League kind of whiplash. Mention the Cup win and you'll cheer up any Palace fan instantly.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Whoever ends up in the Palace dugout, the first job is just stopping the leaks. They're not as bad as the table says, but they're getting close.
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Avoid saying
"Just bring Roy Hodgson back again" — it's been said as a joke so many times that Palace fans have stopped laughing, and the man has done his bit for the club twice over already.