Tottenham vs Newcastle tips and predictions: Tired defending to lead to a glut of goals
Ange Postecoglou
Injury-hit sides Tottenham and Newcastle should play out an error-ridden, high-scoring game in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon (1630 GMT).
The wheels have well and truly come off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Newcastle United’s away form is trending in the same direction.
Both of these teams have undergone incredible transformations under their current managers but a long list of injuries is catching up with them.
Ange Postecoglou is without no fewer than nine players, several of whom are central to what Spurs do. James Maddison’s absence has led to a decline in creativity.
Notably, the lack of fresh legs have made his style harder to play. Spurs are making more mistakes on the ball and their running stats are down.
No team has applied more pressure in the final third than Tottenham and as a team, they’ve made the most sprints in the Premier League.
Interestingly, a lot of Newcastle’s success has been built around a similar hassling approach, but they’re also struggling to maintain that.
Their players have admitted they’re a battered and bruised bunch and their late collapse at Goodison Park, headlined by uncharacteristic mistakes by Kieran Trippier, was spectacular.
It’ll be interesting to see who can do a better job of imprinting their style on this game but we’re willing to bet this game will be won and lost on turnovers.
Both teams have scored in each of Spurs’ last six matches and all of those games have had over 2.5 goals.
Newcastle’s 8-0 win against Sheffield United ended a run of 14 away games without a clean sheet but they’ve been back on form since, conceding in four straight.
What is unusual, however, is the Magpies have let in at least two in each of those games. That last occurred in August 2015 and there's no doubt Spurs have the attacking quality to punish such form.
Team news
Ivan Perisic, James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur, Micky van de Ven, Eric Dier, Manor Solomon, Ryan Sessegnon and Alfie Whiteman are ruled out due to injury.
Richarlison and Pape Matar Sarr may start to freshen things up but Spurs have limited options.
Sandro Tonali is suspended while Nick Pope, Dan Burn, Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Matt Targett and Javier Manquillo are injured.
They’re joined in the treatment room by Jacob Murphy, Sean Longstaff, Elliot Anderson, Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes and Callum Wilson.
Key stats
- Newcastle did the double over Spurs last season, winning 6-1 and 2-1
- Newcastle have won three of 12 in this fixture
- Tottenham have picked up one point in their last five
- Tottenham have not won in five
- Tottenham are without a clean sheet in six
