Solid Spurs Spoil Newcastle's Big Buyout Party

Sunday 17th October 2021

Match Report

Newcastle United 3 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur

Venue: St.James' Park, Newcastle

Competition: English Premier League

Thoughts Pre-Match – After the big Saudi billionaire buyout a week ago, there's no doubt the atmosphere's going to be booming inside St. James'. The departure of the despised Mike Ashley, and a potential future challenging at the top, is reason to celebrate. It doesn't come without controversy though, as Saudi Arabia's horrible human rights issues have been highlighted. It'll be interesting to see if a noticeable portion of Newcastle supporters protest.

With the limelight on the home side, Spurs have the chance to turn up and spoil the party. Our recent record at St. James' Park is pretty poor though, and Nuno has yet more selection headaches with Romero, Lo Celso, Sanchez and Emerson Royal all doubtful having taken part in South American Internationals on Thursday.

On top of that, news broke in the past few days that two Spurs players had tested positive for COVID. The players are yet to be named, but taking all of this into consideration, who knows who the lineup will feature come tomorrow afternoon.

Unfortunately, I feel the International break has had its feared impact and disrupted the momentum we looked to have kicked-off against Villa. These issues, combined with a buoyant Newcastle support, leads me to think we're going to lose this one. I'm going 3-1 Newcastle.

As expected, the majority of Newcastle supporters were celebrating the takeover, some even specifically the Saudi aspect of it, with contingents of the crowd pictured in headscarves and waving Saudi flags.

In team news, both COVID cases were confirmed as false positives. This came as a huge relief, as we learnt that one of those players had been Son Heung-min. Two of the four South Americans started too, with Royal at right back and Romero in the middle beside Dier. Skipp earned a deserved place in central midfield alongside Højbjerg, an Ndombele sat in front of them again, a player who still very much has a point to prove. Moura and Son took up the wide positions and Kane spearheaded the attack.

108 seconds. That's all it took for a fired-up Newcastle to find the opening goal.

They switched the play to the right wing where Saint-Maximin found Manquillo on the overlap. He crossed it first time and Callum Wilson was there to beat Romero to it and head past Lloris from close range. Jubilation around St. James'. 1-0.

There was a frantic pace to the game as the players showed noticeable excitement in reaction to the roaring crowd. Spurs dug their heels in and weathered the storm.

Then, after seventeen minutes, Ndombele popped up and provided a peach of an equaliser!

Dier's long ball from the back found Reguilón down the left flank, he controlled it nicely before passing along the top of the penalty area into the feet of Ndombele, the Frenchman took a touch to control, another to set himself to his right and a third to side-foot it home into the top right corner. 1-1.

Five minutes later and Kane found his first goal of the season to put Spurs ahead!

Noticing Spurs win the ball back in midfield as he walked back from an offside position, he made a curved run toward the play to dip into the Newcastle backline before darting onto the end of a beautiful chipped through-ball from Højbjerg. Kane allowed it to bounce as he took a glance at the outrushing Newcastle goalkeeper, then with a delicate touch lifted it up over him and into the net. A wry smile from Harry as it was ruled out for offside, and the Newcastle support jeered in relief. But then a big genuine smile for Kane as VAR deemed the goal onside and Tottenham took a 2-1 lead. That silenced the celebrations somewhat!

Closing in on half-time, Ndombele went on proving his point – Rolling the ball around his feet and throwing step-overs as he worked his way into the Newcastle area. He was eventually tackled, and the resulting corner was met by the leap of Moura, who did everything right, but his header across goal bounced off the frame of the goal.

On entering into the final five minutes of the half, bizarre scenes unfolded as Reguilón began frantically drawing the referee's attention to a section of the Newcastle crowd. It appeared that a fan had suffered a suspected cardiac arrest as Dier was shown running over to the dugouts simulating the use of a defibrillator. The match was brought to a dramatic halt as medical staff rushed into the stands to save the spectator. The players were eventually instructed to make way to the dressing room and the game took a pause.

After a suitable break, the players came back out onto the pitch to play the remaining four minutes of the half plus seven minutes added on.

Inside the fifth minute of additional time, Son made it 3-1 to Spurs!

Ndombele was involved again – holding up the ball well between halfway and the penalty area amongst three Newcastle players. He found a pass to Moura, who did well to beat a man before poking it through to Kane down the right side of the area. He laid one across goal to Son on the six yard box, who swept it into the open net. Lovely football from Spurs in what was swiftly turning into a good performance from them.

"Thoughts at Half-Time – A shaky start for Spurs having fallen behind inside two minutes. But they steadied themselves well, and as soon as the initial positively charged atmosphere had died down, Spurs took control of the game. Ndombele set the standard and Kane and Son followed suit. So having eventually reached the half-time whistle, it's good news from the stands as the fan who was taken ill is said to be stable, and it's good news for Spurs as they're on track to an important 3 points."

Not much of note occurred for the most part of the second half, as Spurs set their sights on keeping things calm by playing assured passes and putting in strong challenges.

When Newcastle did get on the ball they looked uninspiring and lacklustre. With runs from right to left and eventually into nowhere from Saint-Maximin, and sloppy passes being picked off by the likes of Skipp and Højbjerg. Spurs found themselves coasting amongst a severely subdued St. James Park crowd. Though at the same time, we were all fully aware that if Newcastle were to pull one back, it would suddenly become very nervy with just one goal in it and a crowd that'd suddenly spring back into life.

With seven minutes remaining Shelvey surely put the nail in the coffin for the home side – Having received a yellow after kicking down Tanguy who was toying with him over by his own corner flag, he saw red moments later as he made another ridiculous challenge, this time cynically chopping down Reguilón, who'd been set free by Son on a dangerous looking Spurs counter. Dirty play from a dirty player and a deserved red card to further dampen the party that today was supposed to be for the Geordies.

Despite being down to ten men, that worrying goal back arrived in the final minute of the ninety, and it was a ludicrous own goal from Eric Dier – a free-kick from the right side was curved in behind the defensive line, Dier, with nobody challenging him, attempted to stoop down and head the ball, but it missed his head, ricocheted off his knee, and found the bottom corner of Lloris' net. 3-2.

Thankfully from there Spurs saw the game out well – Running down the clock by stroking the ball around and taking advantage of tired challenges to win free-kicks.

"Thoughts at Full-Time – So Spurs pleasantly surprised me and many others by spoiling the big buyout party in Newcastle. After riding out the early emotional onslaught, Nuno's Spurs put in a thoroughly professional performance that sees them leave for London with another much needed 3 points in the bag. Come on you Spurs!"

Tottenham Player Ratings

• 1. Hugo Lloris – 6 – Didn't have much of a chance with the two goals he conceded but didn't really make any saves of note either. Wasn't tested too often.

• 12. Emerson Royal – 6 – Still spending too much time on the floor. Needs to learn to cut that out. Looked decent on the ball though, and after a nervy start didn’t do a whole lot wrong.

• 4. Cristian Romero – 6 – Often solid at the back and gets involved going forward a surprising amount too. Can rush out of position a little too hastily. Beaten to the header for Callum Wilson's goal.

• 15. Eric Dier – 5 – A calamity of an own goal which made for an unnecessarily nervy finish. Didn't look entirely comfortable for the most part of the game. Did play a nice long ball to Reguilón in the build-up to Ndombele's equaliser.

• 3. Sergio Reguilón – 8 – Did well on and off the pitch. Potentially saved a supporter's life by drawing attention to them in the stands. Was lively up and down the left flank throughout the match. Assisted the opener and threatened to create more on many occasions. Was a bundle of energy.

• 5. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg – 7 – The ever-consistent Dane with another sturdy performance. Drives the team on and played a sublime chipped through ball to assist Kane's goal.

• 29. Oliver Skipp – 8 – One of those that can easily go unnoticed but is pivotal to composed performances like this. Plays beyond his years doing the simple things supremely well. Phlegmatic how he goes about it all too.

• 28. Tanguy Ndombele – 9 – At his instrumental best. Showed those moments of pure class we all know he's capable of. Evident he was in the mood today and he's pretty much unplayable when he's at it like that. Took his goal beautifully to level the scores and played a part in Son's goal too.

• 27. Lucas Moura – 7 – A real livewire as usual. Harried the opposition when in possession to make interceptions. Did brilliantly to beat a man then poke a ball through to Kane that led to Son's goal. So unlucky not to score with his leaping header.

• 7. Son Heung-min – 7 – Full of running again and eventually found himself on the scoresheet following an excellent Spurs move.

• 10. Harry Kane – 8 – Much better. Grabbed the goal he desperately needed with a cheeky chip over the goalkeeper after beating the offside trap. Set up Son for the third. Good to see him smiling in celebration again. Hopefully he kicks on from here.

Substitutions:

• None! Strange from Nuno.

Man of the Match – 28. Tanguy Ndombele