Tottenham suffered a costly 4-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the Premier League. Two costly slips from the often reliable Micky van de Ven were brutally punished by the lethal Alexander Isak, who finished the game with two goals and a goal each from Anthony Gordon and Fabian Schar blew Spurs away and secured all three points for the Magpies.
In a game defined by individual errors Newcastle showed their quality on and off the ball with aggressive pressing that forced Tottenham in a mistakes. Tottenham’s game is built around speed of game and thinking but this was difficult to get going.
Newcastle were on top, Spurs looked lethargic and lacking the cutting edge that a team that is desperate to return to Champions League football should have.
One clean sheet in 13 matches was always going to hurt a team and Spurs never looked like they were going to get back into it the moment they fell behind. Three changes were made immediately, Pape Matar Sarr, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Dejan Kulusevski for Rodrigo Bentancur, Son Heung-min and Yves Bissouma.
Those changes lifted the performance slightly but Newcastle were brilliant defensively, going into a back five and asking their visitors to try breaking them while keeping an eye on the break. On all fronts Spurs deserved the defeat for their performance and slipped to fifth on the league by virtue of conceding three goals.
In the end, Fabian Schar put the icing on the cake with a terrific header to make it 4-0. Here is how we rated the Tottenham players out there.
1. Guglielmo Vicario- 5
Not much he could do about the goals he conceded. Still showed vulnerability from set pieces.
2. Son Heung-Min
Had to work hard and recover the ball in the first half.
3. Timo Werner-4
Missed two difficult chances early on, they ended up being costly as Newcastle went on to score. The disappointing thing was that he didn't make the goalkeeper work hard.
4. James Maddison -5
Should have been booked for a foul on Gordon. Lost a few balls. No where near the levels he should have been.