After a moral boosting 5-1 win in midweek in Europe, Spurs must turn their attention back to the Premier League this weekend. Newcastle United are the visitors as Tottenham attempt to bounce back from last Saturday’s painful defeat at the hands of Manchester City.
Newcastle sit 18th after a dismal start to the campaign. Manager Alan Pardew has been under intense pressure, through a succession of bad results. Last week’s 1-0 win over Leicester was their first victory of the season in the league. They have 7 points, four points and 9 places below Tottenham.
Newcastle Tactics
Pardew has tended to go with a 4-2-3-1. His side like to cross the ball, prefer to attack down the right hand side and are dangerous from counter attacks.
Somewhat surprisingly Newcastle have some pretty good statistics, as can be seen from my analysis of shot ratios. They are fifth in the league for shots per game, only beaten by the top four from last season. The numbers hint at a better side than their results suggest – Spurs must not underestimate them.
Newcastle won this game last season 1-0 with a resolute defensive display. It will be interesting to see if Pardew adopts similar tactics this time round. Solid, compact teams, congesting the middle of the pitch, tend to cause Tottenham problems.
Spurs fans might prefer to remember the excellent 4-0 win at St. James’ Park. A false dawn for the Tim Sherwood regime.
Odds
Spurs are favourites at 1.77, the draw is 4.0, while a Newcastle win is out at 5.1
Team News
Fazio is suspended after his red card last weekend. Bentaleb, Naughton and Walker are all out, leaving Tottenham short in defence, particularly at right back.
Newcastle have a long injury list. Cheick Tiote, Mike Williamson, Emmanuel Riviere and Sammy Ameobi all face late fitness tests too.
Potentially the biggest pre-match news is that Pappiss Cisse is a doubt with a knee problem. The Senegalese striker has rediscovered his shooting boots this term, with four league goals.
Spurs Team
The big decision for Pochettino is who to play up front. Adebayor has been the manager’s first choice so far, but Soldado did well last week, linking up effectively with Mason, Chadli and Eriksen. After his hat-trick in midweek it’s hard to ignore Harry Kane.
I would go with Soldado and my poll in the week agreed. After resting the Spanish striker for the Europa League game, it looks likely that Pochettino shares this view.
I would like to see Vertonghen back in defence. He was missed last week as City outpaced and outplayed our centre backs. With Fazio suspended and Dier needed at right back, there aren’t a lot of other options.
Prediction: Tottenham 3 – Newcastle United 1
Follow me on Twitter: @ABPSpurs
Are you confident ahead of Spurs clash with Newcastle? Let me know in the comments below.
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Anything But Penalties 
Totally agree with starting with Soldado for tomorrow’s game. I know this may sound weird but i think I would start Kane instead of Lamela. The more and more i watch the Argentine play, i see him more and more as an impact sub, capable of outrageous skills and unlocking defence, rather than a solid consistent starter.
I can see your point and Kane is in great form but I would still pick Lamela. He has been poor against some of the bigger teams – City, Liverpool – but generally does quite well in games like this.
Kane should start rather than Soldado and so should Lamela..
I am tempted on Kane but for the moment would give Soldado the chance with Kane as a replacement later on.
I really cannot believe that we have lost this game on our home ground, the third one. Again, we are making the mistake of not starting with Kane. I think there is now every indication that we are a very average team unless something is wrong somewhere. We keep doing silly things in almost every match that cost us winnable games. Is it due to a lack of mental strength? We seem to lack a belief in ourselves and not giving the best of ourselves in a determined fighting manner until the very end of a game..Newcastle taught us a lesson in this today.
Defeated by a team that wanted it more and by a manager that identified our weaknesses and took action to exploit them, while ours sat there watching as Newcastle’s central defenders and midfielders just blocked everything time and again.
In my opinion, 4231 is just not a dangerous enough system for a supposedly superior team playing at home. To the poster who had a go at me for leaving Chadli and Lamela out of my suggested line-up last week, I hope you watched that showing of utter dross as yet again we failed to penetrate due to our predictable attacks through the middle.
There were plenty of positives to take from the City thrashing but I can think of nothing positive from the Newcastle defeat. It is so infuriating being a Spurs fan!
Villa, Stoke, Hull and Everton in November. All better teams than Newcastle – we need to snap out of this funk and quick or we will be well out of touch come New Year.
My fears about losing this match are now a horrible reality. How could we have lost again on our home ground to a team we should have been able to beat. I am very disappointed and all the fans are. There is something wrong about our team. We are not taking things seriously enough and look too mediocre on the pitch.. We lack commitment and the winning mentality if not mental strength and physical fitness..
Starting line up
Loris, Vorm Dembele, Ericksen, Lamela, Chadli, Adebayor, Soldado, Kane,Lennon, Townsend..
2, 1, 8,
We can’t defend so might as we’ll don’t have any defenders and try and out sore the other team…also helps in case Loris gets sends of defending
Winning this match against Newcastle is a MUST. I hope not to be disappointed as I have so often been over matches we should have won..