Lewis Dunk's Long-Range Strike Highlights a 5-0 Brighton Win at Coventry City

Coventry City's winless, scoreless start to the Premier League season reached a new low. Brighton scored five without reply, reduced the home side to ten men before the hour, and did it with five different goalscorers — the kind of afternoon that leaves very little to take from the performance.

Five goals, five scorers

Charalampos Kostoulas put Brighton ahead just before half-time, and Malick Yalcouye doubled the lead early in the second half. Pascal Groß converted a penalty on 70 minutes, and then Lewis Dunk produced the goal of the afternoon 13 minutes later — a strike from distance that even surprised him.

"I've got that sort of shot in my locker — I shocked myself. If you see from my celebration, I didn't think it was going to come out like that."

— Lewis Dunk, Brighton defender

"It was an unbelievable strike — they can wrap the award up and do the ceremony tomorrow because it isn't getting better than this."

— Bart Verbruggen, Brighton goalkeeper

Yasin Ayari added a fifth in the fourth minute of stoppage time to complete the scoreline. Coventry's afternoon had already been ruined by then: Taiwo Awoniyi was sent off in the 53rd minute for an elbow on Maxim De Cuyper, leaving Frank Lampard's side to play the last 37 minutes a man light while already 2-0 down.

Goal timeline

Bottom of the table, and running out of answers

Coventry came into the round bottom of the Premier League on nought points from three matches, having lost to Arsenal, Hull City and Manchester City without scoring a single goal. This defeat makes it four straight losses to open their return to the top flight, with no goals scored and ten conceded — the division's only side yet to find the net this season. Brighton, who had arrived in mid-table on four points from a win, a loss and a draw, move to seven points and a goal difference of +8, comfortably their best attacking afternoon of the campaign so far.

"Welcome to the Premier League, that is what that is — we need to just be honest about that, we need to take chances in this league."

— Frank Lampard, Coventry City manager

The week after

Six days later, Coventry finally turned a corner. Jay Dasilva's 55th-minute strike gave Frank Lampard's side a 1-0 win away at Nottingham Forest on 19 September — Coventry's first goal of the season, arriving after 340 minutes without one, and the club's first Premier League win since their relegation in 2001. It lifted them off the bottom of the table, past Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur. Brighton's weekend went the other way: the same day, Fabian Hurzeler's side beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Amex to end the Gunners' unbeaten start, turning the rout of Coventry into the first leg of a run — two wins, eight goals scored and none conceded across the pair of matches.

Five matchweeks into the season, the two clubs sit at opposite ends of the table. Brighton are third with 10 points from five games, 16 goals scored and only five conceded — five points off leaders Manchester City and firmly inside the Champions League places. Coventry are 18th, second from bottom, with three points from five games and a goal difference of -9. The win at the City Ground means the stat that hung over this defeat — a Premier League season with no goals scored at all — no longer applies, even if the table still shows a newly promoted side with plenty of work left to do.