“We expect a very tough game against Newcastle”, Mauricio Pochettino said on Friday, a phrase that despite last week’s excellent victory over Liverpool still sounds a little silly.
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“They took it on board, we haven’t had back-to-back wins for over a year and to do it was vast”. “We were all in the game, we were all concentrated to get this one point at the end and it felt like three”. It was clear that we could play with energy, create chances and have control of the game. We just have to do it consistently.
The result saw Newcastle moved out of the Premier League’s relegation zone and up to 15th place.
Tottenham, meanwhile, have lost only once in the league this season, back on the opening weekend, and even then they had to score the opposition’s victor for them, Kyle Walker prodding into his own net at Old Trafford.
However, today the former United and Liverpool striker predicts Newcastle to get what they deserve.
Steve McClaren hailed a “fantastic” Newcastle display after a last-minute goal against high-flying Tottenham earned his side back-to-back wins for the first time since Alan Pardew was in charge in November 2014. We do keep saying that and that’s right, which is why football and sport is so frustrating, not just being a manager, not just being a coach, but also being a fan, because you do look and say, ‘Well, why can’t you repeat that?’.
The chance and save of the game came with 10 minutes of the first half remaining when Erik Lamela tried to curl Danny Rose’s cutback into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.
The second half started cagily, with both teams poking at the ball without creating real chances save a Harry Kane snap shot from outside the box that Elliot did well to parry away.
“In the second half, every time we had the ball we started to make some mistakes and we give them the possibility to a right to a goal”, Pochettino said.
On Pulis he added: “I didn’t see him after the game”.
He dismissed the idea his players were tiring after the long unbeaten spell and a Thursday night Europa League tie. He has scored eight league goals this season – no other Tottenham player has scored more than three – and his absence would increase the pressure on his team-mates to replace his goals.
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The Magpies slowly grew into the encounter as Spurs stuttered and eventually secured a shock victory courtesy of late goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez.
