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3 hours ago
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To his extensive list of problems at Tottenham, Thomas Frank can add another. The manager is dealing with a ghost from the club’s more successful recent past. There were 49 minutes on the clock when the South Stand choir took up the song. “He’s magic, you know. Mauricio Poch-e-ttino.” The message was clear. They want their former idol back. They cannot persist any longer with Frank.
The only wonder here was that Newcastle, who had arrived on the back of three straight Premier League defeats, with numerous issues of their own, were not out of sight at the interval. If they were bright in the first half, Spurs were impossibly awful. Frank’s injury list was in double figures and he would lose another player – Wilson Odobert – in the 34th minute. No one wants to hear the mitigation.
There was a period at the start of the second half when Spurs threatened an improbable comeback. Trailing to Malick Thiaw’s goal just before half-time, they re-emerged with a bit of purpose and Archie Gray found the equaliser following a set piece.
Newcastle simply went again. There was an inevitability about Jacob Ramsey’s winner; it was entirely deserved from a Newcastle point of view. The main soundtrack to the occasion was the booing from the Spurs support. Towards the bitter end, Frank was subjected to another chant from them. “You’re getting sacked in the morning.”
Spurs have now won only twice in 17 league matches. It is relegation form. And, however much no one at the club wants to confront the reality, they are most assuredly in a relegation battle. Next up for them is the derby here against Arsenal on Sunday week.
Eddie Howe got his tactics spot on. The Newcastle manager had a clear idea of how he wanted to hurt Spurs – with pace. His front three was loaded with it. He dropped Yoane Wissa and kept Nick Woltemade among the substitutes. It was Anthony Elanga and Harvey Barnes either side of Anthony Gordon. Newcastle settled quickly and their control of the first half would be total.
It had been possible to make out a few boos for the announcement of Frank’s name before kick-off and the nerves swirled among the home support. It is a consequence of how their team has played here in the league this season – and going back to the previous campaign. Newcastle had not exactly travelled with confidence. Their fans, though, did a decent job of projecting it. Their vocal backing was loud.
The assurance on the ball belonged to Newcastle. Bruno Guimarães always seemed to have an extra second in possession; there was good movement around him. Newcastle made inroads up the right through Elanga and it felt as if it would be a matter of time before they scored.
Joe Willock was a whisker away from the far corner with a low shot on nine minutes and the pressure from the visitors mounted inexorably. The Spurs support wanted something to get behind. Anything. There was zero from their team before the interval. Anxiety filled the void with Guglielmo Vicario a conductor for it. When he punched weakly midway through the first half, there were howls from the South Stand. He looked jittery on the ball, as usual.
The Spurs anguish built up. When Conor Gallagher went back with the ball rather than forward, there was anger in the stands. Ditto when Yves Bissouma did likewise in first-half stoppage time at 0-0. When Vicario collected an easy mis-hit there were cheers.
It was all Newcastle in the first half. Spurs were passive, especially in the duels. They had nothing apart from long balls for Dominic Solanke. Pape Sarr was booked for diving. After Dan Burn could not get to a header in the Spurs area, there were boos from the home fans.
There would be more after Willock ran onto a Jacob Ramsey pass on 44 minutes, cut inside Micky van de Ven and located the far corner with a cool finish. The goal was disallowed, however, when the VAR spotted that Willock was fractionally offside but Tottenham’s reprieve did not last long. It would have been a minor miracle had they reached half-time at 0-0.
The breakthrough came when Thiaw rose unmarked to meet Elanga’s cross and Vicario could only pat the ball out weakly. Thiaw got to his own rebound ahead of Sarr and Gray. He wanted it more. The half-time whistle was met with real anger.
Frank’s hope, that of everybody connected to the club, was that it could not get any worse in the second half. Spurs restarted with a bit more feeling. Mathys Tel, who had come on for Odobert, lashed high after good work from Gray. Sarr forced Nick Pope into a save.
It was better. The home crowd settled for a while. Newcastle had brought an unwanted statistic to London. They had given up 19 points from winning positions, the most in the league. The Spurs equaliser came when Sarr headed back a Xavi Simons corner and Gray was there to volley home.
Newcastle were stung. Van de Ven threw himself into a block to deny Harvey Barnes and, after Simons was booked for diving, Newcastle restored their advantage. One of the frustrations for Spurs was that Gallagher had squandered a counterattacking opportunity with a poor pass. Newcastle reset and worked the ball back up the Tottenham right. It was Gordon with the low pass into the area and no one in white was close enough to Ramsey, who swept an assured finish into the far corner.
