After Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Brentford was met with boos at the full-time whistle, Newcastle travel to North London to face an equally out-of-sorts Spurs side.
It’s a battle between one side who are awful at home (Spurs sit 17th in the ‘home table’) and another side who are awful away (Newcastle sit 16th in the ‘away table’), with both managers crying out for a win to salvage their seasons.
For Newcastle, we now sit 12th, as close to the relegation zone (10 points) as the top five. Confidence is low, we’ve conceded 10 goals in our last three games, there is a total lack of cohesion in attack and pressure is mounting on Eddie Howe, who needs to find answers, but also for his players to step up massively.
With three more away games to follow Tuesday’s trip to Tottenham, our season is in danger of getting worse before it gets better, making this a massive opportunity to stop the rot and shift some momentum back in our favour after such a damaging defeat over the weekend.
Speaking to the media in his Monday morning press conference, Howe had this to say ahead of the game.
“I always try to be honest, whether we played well or badly. I was really disappointed on Saturday with the result; the performance wasn’t at the level we wanted it to be. We tried to take ownership of that and now focus on the future.”
“We have to defend better. When you look back at the last run of games, we haven’t defended our goal well enough and that’s cost us those games. We need to find solutions to our defensive vulnerabilities and we need to be more clinical the other way, so it’s a bad mix and that’s a big issue for us.”
“The unity is always important; we still have that. The supporters on Saturday were incredible for us, that is never taken for granted. But we must earn it and continue to have the respect of our supporters. I am confident we will have a positive response, and thank the supporters for their loyalty.”
Lewis Miley (dead leg) will be assessed, with his return feeling vital given Kieran Trippier’s struggles at right-back, while Anthony Gordon (hamstring) is hoping to be back in the squad after training on Monday.
Joelinton (groin) has been ruled out once again, with Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth also absent.
For Spurs, Thomas Frank will be without suspended captain Cristian Romero and 10 other senior players, with the following all ruled out for an injury hit Tottenham side:
- CB: Cristian Romero (Suspended)
- CB: Kevin Danso (Ankle)
- RB: Pedro Porro (Thigh)
- LB: Destiny Udogie (Thigh)
- LB: Ben Davies (Ankle)
- CM: Lucas Bergvall (Ankle)
- CM: Rodrigo Bentancur (Hamstring)
- CAM: James Maddison (Knee)
- RW: Dejan Kulusevski (Knee)
- RW: Mohammed Kudus (Thigh)
- ST: Richarlison (Thigh)
The only boost for Frank will be Djed Spence’s return, giving them a much-needed option at full-back with Porro, Udogie and Davies all ruled out.
(5-2-3): Pope – Miley, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Hall – Bruno, Tonali – Elanga, Gordon, Barnes.
OUT: Trippier, Willock, Murphy, Wissa.
IN: Burn, Miley, Elanga, Gordon.
If Miley and Gordon are fit enough to start, I’m sure they will. Trippier needs protecting, for his and the team’s sake, and Gordon’s pace could also hurt a Spurs side missing so many players through injury.
I expect Howe to bring Burn back in, opting for a system similar to the one that caused PSG all sorts of problems, taking Wissa out of the side after Saturday’s stinker and replacing Murphy with Elanga, who has looked much sharper in recent games.
Barnes may need a rest, however. If so, I could see Woltemade back up top, hopefully benefiting from Gordon and Elanga’s energy and pace either side of him.
Put very simply, Spurs are awful at home and Newcastle have been awful away. In one respect, I’m hopeful we can capitalise on their injury crisis, yet we come into this low on confidence, in awful form, shipping goals and struggling to create, leaving many to fear we will be the latest team to let an out of sorts side look good.
My heart says we’ll dig deep and find a way to bounce back, but my head expects a 1-1 draw that will do little for either side.
Prediction: Spurs 1-1 Newcastle
Howay the lads!
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