Tottenham Hotspur Stunned By Newcastle United

There were plenty of question marks surrounding Tottenham Hotspur coming into the weekend after a less than convincing start to the new Premier League season. That may sound odd when you consider the fact that they managed to accumulate four points from their first two games, but the Villa win was massively unconvincing, and the Manchester City draw was one of the luckiest things we’ve ever seen.

As reported by BBC and The Guardian, they were exposed in a big way by Newcastle United last night as they fell to Steve Bruce’s side in one of the most shocking results of the last few years – unless you’re a Spurs fan, in which case you probably could’ve seen this coming from a mile away.

A shock result

The one and only goal of the game came courtesy of Joelinton, who has received a lot of flack over the last few weeks for his first few performances of the season. Now, though, he’s got a goal under his belt, and it’ll be interesting to see how he can kick on from here.

Tottenham just showed no real urgency and didn’t appear to be particularly invested in the idea of actually scoring, which sounds pretty weird in itself. There wasn’t a plan B, Newcastle looked comfortable, and Spurs were made to look pretty foolish.

We have tried to quieten the storm. After two games, it’s been hard to get that criticism. I hope that gives us a little a bit of time,” Bruce said.

“It is only the first win but we have seen some big performances today.”

“The only way we can respond to criticism is like that.

“We have had a tough week so we have had to respond in the right way and thankfully the players have.

“I mean, to say I ‘cannot even do a warm-up’ is mad. I have managed 900-odd games and over the years you would think there would be some sort of respect.

“I go back to the fact that whoever took over from Rafa Benitez was going to get the abuse. I hope that is a line in the sand.”

Geordie joy

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino had the following to say.

“The problem is during the week, not when the competition arrives. This type of situation happens in the Premier League. That is why you need to create a very good dynamic and strong team bonding and, at the moment, that situation in our group is still far, far away. The group is still unsettled and we need to find solutions.

“We didn’t play well and I’m very disappointed about our performance. We conceded a very cheap goal and then it was difficult. We created some chances but not enough. We should have played better, [with] more desire, more capacity, more aggression with the ball. To have 80% of possession is too much when you only have a few shot on target.”

Now, the real test is going to be what kind of response we see from this Tottenham side.