Coventry vs Newcastle trends as Monday night Premier League match kicks off
A rare league fixture between the two clubs got going Monday night with Coventry looking to build on a rare home-season high and Newcastle chasing the top four.
Why coventry vs newcastle is trending
People are typing in "coventry vs newcastle" because the two clubs kicked off a Premier League match Monday night, October 12, at 20:00 UK time, and it's a fixture nobody has seen in a long time. This is the first meeting between Coventry and Newcastle in the league since 2009-10, and that was in the Championship. You have to go back to 2000-01 for the last time they met in the Premier League itself. Newcastle have won every single meeting between these two clubs in any competition this millennium, seven straight.
As of this writing, the match is underway and no final score has come in yet. This piece covers what's known about the buildup and the stakes. We'll have the result once it's final.
What's on the line
Both clubs arrived off wins before the international break. A draw tonight pulls Coventry out of the bottom three in the table. A Newcastle win pushes them into the top four. Coventry's home form has been the problem so far this season, two Premier League matches at their own ground, both losses, a combined 6-0. Only four other clubs in the competition's history have opened a season with three straight scoreless home defeats: Everton did it twice, and Crystal Palace, Burnley and Wolves each did it once.
There's a manager angle too. Matthias Jaissle's eight points from his first five Premier League games in charge of Newcastle are the most for a new Newcastle manager since Alan Pardew picked up nine in January 2011. A win here would give Jaissle the best points total through six games since Sam Allardyce's start in September 2007.
What Lampard and the Coventry players said going in
Lampard told Sky Sports the win over Nottingham Forest mattered. "Momentum is a big word" and the win "felt big," he said, adding the squad showed attributes it needs to show consistently. On the international break, he said it came at a decent time given injuries and late-arriving signings who needed time to settle. He also addressed Sidiki Cherif making his first Premier League start, saying Cherif has progressed in fitness after a difficult summer and the club isn't expecting everything from him right away.
Defender Jay Dasilva spoke about the Forest win too, saying the group is "buzzing to be back in Premier League football" and calling it Coventry's first top-flight win in 25 years, a big deal for the players and the fans.
What happens next
The final score isn't in yet. What we do know is the shape of the night: a club trying to climb out of the bottom three at home against a club chasing a top-four spot, with a rare piece of history between them either extended or broken. Check back for the result once the match wraps.
Facts per BBC, Sky Sports. Opinion is the taproom's.