Nottingham Forest v Coventry City: Key stats and talking points

Nottingham Forest earned their first win of the season last weekend and now face a bottom-of-the-table Coventry City side yet to score or avoid defeat since their return to the Premier League. It's the first top-flight meeting between the clubs since a 4-0 home win for the Sky Blues in January 1999. Forest must address home truths Nottingham Forest answered Oliver Glasner's call to find the "final bit missing" when they deservedly beat Aston Villa last weekend. Head coach Glasner was referring to his team's goalscoring issues but it could just as easily apply to their troublesome home form. So far this season at the City Ground, Forest have lost twice to Leeds United – including in the Carabao Cup – and drawn with Spurs. They failed to score in any of those games and seldom threatened to do so, registering a combined seven shots on target. It's the continuation of an issue which dates back to last year; their only home league victory in 13 attempts since Christmas came against soon-to-be-relegated Burnley in April. Only Tottenham have earned fewer points at home among Premier League ever-present sides during that time, while Forest are the lowest scorers in front of their own fans. [BBC] Hope remains for Coventry The momentum of a Championship title-winning campaign has swiftly dissipated for Coventry, who are yet to earn a point since returning to the Premier League and made a midweek exit from the EFL Cup. After 97 league goals last season, they have none after four top-flight games; Mustapha Hadji remains the last Coventry player to score a Premier League goal, on 5 May 2001. This is the first time since their debut 1919-20 campaign that Coventry have lost their opening four league fixtures in a season, while they are only the fifth side in English top-flight history to do so without scoring. The Sky Blues are creating chances, though, and have an expected goals tally of 4.2. Perhaps not enough of those opportunities are falling to the right players. Coventry have had 41 attempts on goal in the Premier League but only nine were by centre-forwards, rising to 23 – a modest 56% – when incorporating all attacking players. Surprisingly, six clubs have a lower percentage but only Coventry have a defender with his side's most goal attempts – Bobby Thomas, with nine. Despite Coventry's current travails, history offers them hope: eight of the previous 18 teams to start a Premier League season with four straight defeats managed to stay up. And Frank Lampard's side can take inspiration from the fact Crystal Palace lost their opening seven games without scoring in 2017-18 but rallied to finish 11th. [BBC]