Copy linkFacebookXPinterestEmailShare this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletterIn May 2001, John Mullaney stood among his fellow Coventry City supporters and thrust aloft a crudely fashioned sign of defiance: Well be back.Coventry had been relegated from Englands top division for the first time, 34 years after Jimmy Hill became the first manager to take the Sky Blues out of the second tier in the right direction.Mullaney was right, after a fashion. It took a quarter of a century and immeasurable despair, but Coventry are back in the Premier League.They were our biggest local rivals when I was growing upBut as the club capitalised on an updated version of their supporters handiwork to mark the occasion, the significance of where his homemade placard was displayed might have been lost to fans outside the West Midlands.Nobody who filed into the Coventry Building Society Arena for Wednesdays Carabao Cup third round tie against Aston Villa was in that category. Coventry were relegated at Villa Park and theres not a football stadium in the world where they wouldnt have preferred to suffer. You may like Coventry City fought valiantly to make it back to the Premier League, but will surviving the drop prove to be an even greater task? - Coventry City 2026-27 season preview "It was a season where most of what we touched turned to gold" Matt Grimes and Gordan Strachan on how Coventry City ended their 25-year Premier League exile Frank Lampard is safe despite Coventry City's horror start Doug King knows better than to lose his nerve Pick the ultimate 4-4-2 line-up from players in FourFourTwo's definitive Top 100 ListCoventry and Villa havent been drawn together in the FA Cup or League Cup in the intervening years. It was with a cruel flourish that they were paired in the Sky Blues first season back in the Premier League.Despite their proximity, the rivalry between Coventry and Villa largely an off-the-pitch matter and not inaccurately described as a little one-side is often overlooked.Get FourFourTwo NewsletterThe best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.FourFourTwo spoke to Steve, a Villa supporter, outside the ground before Unai Emerys team faced Coventry.I remember sending [Coventry] down, but it was so long ago that I dont really remember how I actually felt about it, he said.Its good for the region that theyre in the Premier League again but I cant imagine theyll stay long. I dont mind saying that they were our biggest local rivals when I was growing up even if we sometimes dont like to admit it. What to read next Newcastle United demonstrated the power of the twelfth man can Aston Villa overcome the empty North Stand? "The community took a battering for 25 years. Its a different world now in Coventry" Former Sky Blues boss Gordon Strachan hails impact promotion has already had in Coventry Exxclusive: Harry Redknapp evaluates Frank Lampard's task after Coventry's promotion Its just that I didnt think about them for a moment in the time they were away.Thats the thing about one-sided rivalries. The supporters who dont actively participate in it react badly to being disliked with such intensity, thus its seldom truly one-sided when push comes to shove.Coventry were unable to harness a match with needle to kickstart their seasonWhats not in doubt is that the rivalry with Villa, in some shape or form, is real for many Coventry fans.The teams were together for years without others from Birmingham and the West Midlands crossing their paths all that often, and the Sky Blues relegation and a few players moving to Villa Park left a bad feeling.Were a club without a mutual rivalry, I think its fair to say, Dominic Jerams, the Coventry supporter behind Sideways Sammy, tells FourFourTwo.When I started going to Coventry games we were in the Premier League and Aston Villa were the main rivals. When we were first in the Championship, Leicester City became the big rivalry.Our rivalries have always been contextual. And there was Dion Dublin going to Villa. Moustapha Hadji. George Boateng. It was really galling after a while. As a young fan, they were all of my favourite players, so Villa have lingered as a rival in my mind.Rivals or not, Coventry and Villa arrived in the third round of the Carabao Cup in need of a springboard, and it was the visitors who booked their place in the fourth round and will hope to have earned a boost in confidence into the bargain.Victor Torp scored a beautiful free kick to briefly give the home team hope, but Tammy Abraham scored two goals either side of Ross Barkleys unmarked header as Villa put three goals past the Sky Blues again, quarter of a century after the last time.For manager Frank Lampard and Coventry, there was no sweet relief and no respite from a brutally difficult start to the season. Six matches into 2026/27, a 4-2 win over Plymouth Argyle isnt enough to ease a darkening mood.By the time this fixture is replayed in the Premier League, both Lampard and Emery will know much more about where their teams stand.Neither should read too much into their first encounter of the season. The Villa manager told reporters after the match that the Carabao Cup is important, not least as a possible route back into Europe, but sometimes matches pop into the fixture list that are really more for the fans than anything else.TOPICSTammy AbrahamRoss BarkleyAston VillaCoventry CityCarabao CupPremier LeagueChris NeeChris is a Warwickshire-based freelance football writer specialising in West Midlands football, the Premier League, the EFL and the J.League. He is the author of the High Protein Beef Paste football newsletter and owner of Aston Villa Review. He supports Coventry Sphinx.
