Newcastle’s decisive 4-0 victory over Tottenham at St. James’ Park lifted them to sixth place in the Premier League standings.
Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon put Spurs under the board with two goals in the first forty-five seconds of play, and Isak’s second goal and a late header from Fabian Schar sealed the victory. It is the greatest setback of Ange Postecoglou’s leadership.
Tottenham aimed to gain an early lead over Aston Villa. Rather, they fall behind their competitors into fifth place in the standings as a result of this crushing loss to a clinical Newcastle team.
Howe adjusted Newcastle’s formation in an attempt to disrupt Tottenham’s build-up through inverted full-backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie. The plan worked effectively, although the manager was keen to ensure that the praise was directed at his players.
He said: “Tottenham are unique in what they do and we felt we needed to change to give ourselves the best chance of what we wanted to do. I thought tactically it worked, it was a really good delivery from the players, they always deserve the praise for the execution.”
Asked if Newcastle can now finish above Manchester United, Howe said: “Who knows? We have just got to keep doing our bit which is trying to win every game. We are hopefully returning to somewhere near our best and we have got to keep heading in that direction.”
“Newcastle were good, credit to them, I thought they were really good today,” said Tottenham boss Postecoglou afterwards.
“We just didn’t really get a grip of the game at all. Right from the start it felt like we allowed Newcastle to dictate the way the game was played, we never really wrestled control at any stage. We paid a price for that.
It ended up being a transition game. A lot of it was self-inflicted by us. We were not brave on the ball. We have been really good this year at understanding that when we have the ball we can be a threat. We just shied away from that today.
“When you do that you allow the game to be played on Newcastle’s terms. When that happens especially away from home it is hard for us to then claw it back once it has got away from us.”
Wednesday, April 24, sees Newcastle return to their pursuit of a European football championship as they visit Crystal Palace.
On Sunday, April 28, Tottenham will play their home North London Derby against rivals Arsenal to resume Premier League action.
Other posts by Hiresh
