England's Only Remaining Invincibles: Can the Sky Blues Maintain Their Remarkable Run?

England's Only Remaining Invincibles: Can the Sky Blues Maintain Their Remarkable Run?

12 months ago, no one single football fan could have foreseen the resurgence Coventry City would undergo over the course of the next year. 17th in the Championship, still suffering from their heartbreaking loss in the play-off final the previous campaign, and appointing Frank Lampard as their new manager - a move which typically saw sides get worse than better - the outlook was exceptionally bleak.

However, those doubts have been sent to Coventry, so to speak, as the ex-Chelsea and England midfielder has rekindled the fire at the very core of what it means to be a Coventry City fan.

👀 A look at tonight's #SkyBetChampionship table...#EFL pic.twitter.com/yvyJCSgk2r

— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) October 18, 2025

Remarkably barging their way into the play-offs again at the end of last season, they exited at the semi-final stage at the hands of Sunderland. However, instead of falling victim to the inevitable mental collapse that follows such a result, Lampard instead saw his chance to stamp his authority on the squad.

Throughout pre-season, he managed to keep hold of a vast majority of the players that operated so effectively under him in the 2024/25 campaign, and is now reaping rewards in the new season - 10 games in, Coventry top the Championship, maintain a so far unbeaten record, and have been making goalscoring look like child’s play.

The Lampard Effect

Prior to taking over the Sky Blues, Lampard never quite managed to get the ball rolling after what was such a promising start to his managerial career. Leading Derby to the play-off final in his first full season of management in 2019, he earned an almost immediate homecoming to Chelsea, where he was lauded with a hero’s welcome.

Achieving a fourth-place finish despite a transfer embargo and an enforced reliance on the club's Cobham youth academy, the Blues' record goalscorer quickly became touted as one of the most promising young managers in world football.

However, things quickly unravelled - after a poor run of results, Lampard was unceremoniously sacked, and he failed to garner any further favour in a year-long stint at Everton. He would return to the Chelsea dugout as interim manager for the last kickings of the 2022/23 season, but the campaign was already a washout for his former side, and the new owners were no doubt already thinking about who they could snag to lead their team the following campaign.

Frank Lampard's last 14 matches as a manager:

0 wins
1 draw
13 losses

7 goals scored
32 goals conceded

🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/uyB3LbgxFo

— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) April 26, 2023

So when he was elected to lead the new era at Coventry, there was precious little fanfare surrounding his arrival. Many saw him as a washed-up ex-player who simply couldn’t translate his on-field skills into management. They would be right - up until the exact moment they hired him.

The club has suffered defeat in the league just 10 times since Lampard took the helm - for context, these defeats have come across 41 Championship games, of which 22 have ended in victory.

Included in this period was a record-breaking run of nine wins in 10 league games, a stretch of results the club had not achieved since the mid-1950s. It was this record, one which made headlines across the country, that finally saw people sit up and take notice of Lampard’s rapidly improving project.

A Different Beast

But there is a disparity here. At the end of last season, sure, Lampard had made Coventry hard to beat, but they did not look like a side capable of blowing teams out of the water and going unbeaten through the first 10 games of the following campaign.

TEN GAMES UNBEATEN. pic.twitter.com/bkzf5enNAM

— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) October 18, 2025

So where did this sudden clinical edge come from? How did Lampard instil this mentality of cold, calculated dismantlement of any and every opposition his side faced?

It is hard to pinpoint. Since his arrival at the club, Lampard has only given the green light for six arrivals, of which only two started in their most recent game, a breezy 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers.

It seems that Coventry’s remarkable turnaround is not down to changes in personnel, but instead to Lampard’s tactical approach - the one thing that he found at his disposal shortly after arriving at the club was the sheer amount of flexibility in his squad.

Midfielders Jack Rudoni and Victor Torp are capable of playing anywhere from CDM to striker, while attackers Ephron Mason-Clark, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Haji Wright, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Ellis Simms are all capable of drifting around and filling each other’s positions, creating an endlessly unpredictable conveyor belt of attacking movement.

Haji Wright.

Top scorer in the Championship 🫡

🎥 @SkyFootball#PUSB pic.twitter.com/RNuxKBVMLN

— That Cov Pod (@ThatCovPod) October 1, 2025

At the back, Lampard has struck the perfect balance of aggressive and passive - full-backs Milan van Ewijk and Jay Dasilva offer plenty in attack, while centre-back options Liam Kitching, Bobby Thomas, Luke Woolfenden and Joel Latibeaudiere offer steadfast resistance in the middle, outjumping, outmanoeuvring and outthinking virtually every Championship attacker they face.

It turns out that Coventry already had the players needed for success on their books - they simply needed the right man in charge to squeeze every last vestige of talent from them. And as we have seen countless times already this season and last, Frank Lampard is that man.

Sky (Blue) High

This season has been a fever dream for anyone associated with the club - their 29 goals are 12 more than any other Championship club, and more than any side in England’s top four leagues, and in conceding just seven down the other end, they also boast the second-best defensive record in the second tier behind Stoke.

And then there is the manner in which Lampard’s side wins games. Their last four have all ended in clean sheets, and the scorelines (from most recent to least) have been 2-0, 5-0, 4-0 and 3-0. Prior to those games, they had also notched a 7-1 win over QPR and a 5-3 win over Lampard’s former side, Derby County (much to the dismay of fellow writer Chris, who sits opposite me as I write this).

🔵🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Frank Lampard's Coventry side are now 10 matches unbeaten! In their last 5 matches, they have conceded 0 goals. ✅

Currently top of the Championship, aiming for promotion to the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/NK850mdRvO

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) October 19, 2025

They have not simply beaten their opponents - they have pummelled them into submission, and every other Championship club seems powerless in the face of a Coventry bombardment.

Even injuries don’t seem to affect them. Lampard is currently without Rudoni, who proved vital to their play-off push last season with 10 goals and 12 assists, and yet his absence barely seems to have registered - Thomas-Asante and Josh Eccles have slotted into the playmaker role seamlessly, proving that as a cohesive unit, Coventry are far more dangerous than if they relied on a single star player.

You have to wonder where Jack Rudoni is in all of this https://t.co/h3Wc80vplX

— Luke (@SAFC_Luke_2703) October 16, 2025

Of course, it is far too early to say that Lampard’s men can pull off the impossible and go unbeaten across a 46-game season - but with the way they are going, they are as likely as any Championship side in the last couple of decades to go close to the feat.

Lampard is building something special in the West Midlands - his boys in blue are looking comfortably like the best team in the division, and the question on everyone’s lips is when, not if, they will get promoted. Super Frankie Lampard is back, and he’s taking a whole team with him.