With just over 20 minutes left, Sunderland had a sniff of the impossible. O'Nien thought he had a second, but Mfuni threw himself in front of it, and his team-mates applauded him as if they had scored. Mfuni had come into the side in place of Bobby Thomas.

Matt Grimes replaced Torp as Lampard looked to see it out. Rushworth needed treatment late on, and Rudoni's free-kick slipped under the wall and was turned behind by Roefs. In the ninth minute of stoppage time, Alderete, booked moments earlier, brought down Rudoni and went off down the tunnel.

Sunderland finished with more shots, more of the ball and a higher xG. It didn't matter. Coventry scored three times from four shots on target and an xG of 0.71. Sunderland, one of the meanest defences in the league last season, have now let in 17 in nine games, and Alderete will be suspended for next week's game against Chelsea. Coventry were clinical, Sunderland were sloppy, and the table has shifted accordingly.

Lampard had asked for a response after Fulham. He got one, and he liked the way it came.

Le Bris did not dress it up. Asked whether Sunderland are now in a relegation battle, his answer took two words.

The away end booed at the whistle. "It was totally understandable," said Le Bris, who insisted he still has the backing of the club and the dressing room. Zagreb comes next, then Chelsea, without Alderete.

Ipswich thought they had a second when Julio Enciso headed in from a corner, but Abdul Fatawu was penalised for tripping Oliver McBurnie. Tzolakis also pushed a deflected Emersonn shot over the bar, though the flag was up. Hull's first effort of any kind was Tim Iroegbunam's wild left-footer from 25 yards, and it went miles wide. They had taken 35 minutes to get going.

Sergej Jakirovic sent on Matt Crooks for John Egan at half-time and switched to a back four, with Crooks pushed up in support of McBurnie. For a while it changed little. Emersonn shot just wide after Mendy got away with another nudge in the back, and Ipswich looked like regretting the chances they were missing.

They did. On 58 minutes McBurnie released Iroegbunam on the right. The Town defenders sat off, nobody closed him down from halfway, and he bore down on goal and fired past Christian Walton. It was Hull's first shot on target of the afternoon, and his first Premier League goal.

Suddenly Hull fancied it. A four-on-two counter-attack needed a vital sliding tackle from Leif Davis. Lewie Coyle's low drive zipped past the far post. Then Mohamed Belloumi was fouled just outside the box, centrally, and McBurnie stepped up and drove a low curler in. Walton got a hand to it but couldn't keep it out. Hull had less than 35 per cent of the ball and two shots on target, and they led.

O'Neil responded with a triple change, sending on Azor Matusiwa, Daizen Maeda and Jack Clarke. Within six minutes it was level. Enciso, who had scored from outside the box in the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest last week, did it again. He jinked onto his left foot and curled in a delightful finish from 22 yards past a diving Tzolakis.

Both sides could have won it. Issa Diop cleared O'Shea's goalbound header off his own line, and Walton made a superb full-length save to stop Brooke Norton-Cuffy finding the bottom corner. At the other end, Enciso curled wide after Clarke's effort was blocked, Maeda nodded his cross just wide in the 90th minute, and Ouattara dashed into the box in stoppage time and shot well wide.

Ipswich will feel they should have won it at half-time. Hull will feel they had it won with 16 minutes to go. Neither side lost, and both look like they belong.

Jakirovic knew what had slipped away. Enciso's goal, he said, had been "a cheap goal" to concede.

Gary O'Neil saw it differently. In his view, Ipswich had handed Hull both goals.

Ipswich have now taken eight points from losing positions this season, more than any other Premier League side, and it is the first time since January 2025 they have gone two league games unbeaten.

Eleven minutes later it was settled. Mateus Fernandes whipped a superb ball in from deep and Van Hecke beat two defenders to it. Dean Henderson pushed the header on to the bar, and Van Hecke, sitting on the grass, nodded the rebound over the line.

Henderson kept the score respectable, saving from Conor Gallagher and then from Dejan Kulusevski in stoppage time. Kudus had a third ruled out for offside and then, after 18-year-old Luca Williams-Barnett, on his league debut, had danced through and squared it, put a two-yard chance wide.

De Zerbi was pleased, but he wanted more goals from all that pressure.

He explained Gray's early exit, too. "With the first yellow card I had to make the substitution," he said. And he hasn't forgotten where Spurs have been.

Van Hecke admitted he needed the rebound.

Palace's plan after the red card was simple, and it lasted until the 25th minute.

For De Zerbi, it's a third straight league win and a place in the top half, with Leeds away next. For Sage, it's two league wins in nine, and the questions won't go away.

Sage didn't argue with the red card, and the Palace fans sang his name in the second half. Sympathy won't buy him much more time.