Welcome to the Tottenham v Newcastle United preview.
Saturday 29th August and a 5.30pm kick-off.
Newcastle United travel to Tottenham for their first away match of the season this Saturday evening in yet another televised fixture.
The Toon will be hoping to build on a promising start to the season whilst Spurs will be desperate to draw a line under an awful opening-day performance against Brentford.
After Isak faced his former side last week without much success, it’ll be Sandro Tonali’s turn to face the wrath of NUFC fans with all eyes on whether or not the Italian can fare any better than his Swedish counterpart.
Newcastle have won their last two visits to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and will be looking to achieve the hat-trick this weekend.
Form
Newcastle are unbeaten in their first two matches of the season. A tremendous performance against Liverpool saw the Toon take the lead twice before being denied a famous victory due to an injury-time penalty. We followed that up with a fine win against West Brom, coming from behind to win 3-2 and set up a third round tie away at Millwall. We’ve scored five goals in our opening two games and conceded four.
Tottenham didn’t have a great time last weekend when going down 3-0 away at Brentford. Sandro Tonali had an absolute shocker as Spurs were completely taken apart and lucky to escape with just a three goal defeat. A Tonali-less Tottenham were much better in the League Cup on Wednesday night when strolling to an easy win against Charlton.
Last time out
Newcastle hosted West Brom in the League Cup on Wednesday night and came out on top from an entertaining encounter that saw the Baggies take the lead before Toure marked his debut with a close-range finish at the Leazes End to ensure the scores were level at half time. The second half was just a few minutes old when Harvey Barnes netted against his former club but back came West Brom who found a late equaliser when Lewis Hall was penalised for a handball in the box and Price dispatched the penalty. Hall then completed his run of rotten luck when cracking an effort off the post. With the tie looking set to go to a penalty shootout, Harvey Barnes slammed home his second of the night to secure a place in the next round.
Tottenham played Charlton in their League Cup tie on Wednesday night and annihilated their local rivals 5-1. Spurs were 2-0 up by half-time and added another three in the second half before Charlton pulled back a consolation at the death.
Stat attack!
-The Toon have won their last two matches away at Tottenham, triumphing 2-1 on both occasions.
-NUFC have won four, drawn one and lost two of their last seven trips to Spurs.
-Newcastle have scored ten goals in their seven visits to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
Memorable match
In January 2007, Glenn Roeder’s Newcastle were enduring a stop-start season as they struggled for both form and fitness despite having a wealth of talent in the first team. Despite going behind early on, this trip to Tottenham provided one of the highlights of the campaign. Paul Huntington scored his first goal for the club soon after to ensure the scores were level at half-time. A melee between the two sets of players in the tunnel ensured the tension was cranked up to boiling point but unfortunately it was Spurs who retook the lead and looked on course for victory as we struggled to survive wave after wave of Tottenham attacks. This all changed with just eighteen minutes left to play when Obafemi Martins scored one of Newcastle’s all-time greatest Premier League goals, unleashing an unstoppable effort into the top corner to level the scores and send the away fans wild. Even better was to come just a minute later when Martins played in Nicky Butt to score the winning goal. Toon fans who had barely finished celebrating the equaliser now found themselves ahead! Newcastle knew their luck was definitely in when Spurs came back and hammered an effort off the post to ensure the travelling Toon Army left the capital celebrating three goals and three points from an astonishing match. Tottenham 2-3 Newcastle
Played for both
Sir Les Ferdinand never ever should have been sold by Kenny Dalglish in 1997 and has subsequently said he never wanted to leave NUFC. This legend had scored fifty goals in just eighty-four appearances for the black and whites in a lethal two year spell that saw the Toon Premier League runners-up on both occasions. What compounded this ludicrous sale was fellow striker Alan Shearer breaking his ankle on the same afternoon, ruining our season before it had even started. I could write an entire article on Sir Les’ NUFC highlights but a fantastic debut goal against Coventry, a run and finish away at Everton, a bullet header in a 5-0 win over Man Utd and a brace against Nottingham Forest as we qualified for the Champions League will all live long in the memory. The reception he got from NUFC fans when playing against the Toon was truly spine-tingling with a few fans even cheering when he scored a consolation for Leicester at the Gallowgate End in 2004. Always massively pro-Toon when on media duties has cemented his place as an absolute modern-day legend. He spent six years at Tottenham scoring thirty-three league goals and winning the 1999 League Cup.
Stephen Carr spent eleven years at Tottenham before signing for NUFC in 2004. He’d scored seven goals in two hundred and twenty-six appearances. We never really saw the best of him at Newcastle but he did fire home a smashing strike away at Southampton to secure our first away league win there for many a year.
Deandre Yedlin played just one match for Tottenham having signed for Spurs in 2014. He spent most of his time there on loan to the Mackems. He signed for the Toon in 2016 and scored three goals in over a hundred appearances. Until Elanga netted in the League Cup semi-final, he was the last Toon player to score away at Manchester City when he netted a well-taken goal during a 2-1 defeat in 2018.
Managers
Matthias Jaissle following a 3-2 win over West Brom: “Relieved, it’s always the most important thing in a cup run that you take the result, that’s what we did against a strong opponent. I had a chat with their gaffer. They’re doing really well, I think they will play a great role in the Championship. But we also responded. It was important we saw character on the pitch, also after the second equaliser we stepped back and straight away we scored, that helped us of course. We are happy, an entertaining match for the fans. West Brom were a strong opponent, they’re brave and I will follow them now but I’m happy.”
Charity
As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.
Prediction
Newcastle’s first two performances of the season may have raised expectations after a fairly traumatic summer. We’ve looked good going forward and some of the new signings have made a very promising start to life on Tyneside. Spurs on the other hand were truly dreadful last weekend. We’ve got a good record at Tottenham’s new stadium and I fancy that to continue with a narrow victory from this one. Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle.