Brand new season, same old Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite spending hundreds upon hundreds of millions of pounds – and with more reportedly set to follow before Tuesday’s deadline – Spurs continue to punch well below their weight and have made a wretched start to this campaign already.
This 2-0 home defeat to a sprightly Newcastle United made it two losses from two in the Premier League, with five goals shipped and none scored. The same questions that reverberated around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium all last season haven’t gone away.
They fashioned barely anything of note here, with thousands of fans long gone by the time the final whistle blew on another depressing night in N17. Omar Marmoush, one of the many new signings who the club hope will help turn the tide this term, had a chance but could only place a shot wide of goal first half whilst Pedro Porro performed a clever dragback in the box but saw Lewis Hall put in a superb, last-ditch block.
Sandro Tonali is Spurs’ biggest outlay so far this summer but a swift reunion against his old club didn’t go to plan with a so-so performance from the Italian, whose every touch of the ball was booed mercilessly by the black-and-white away end.
The breakthrough came just as the clock ticked past the hour mark and it was a case of persistence paying off for the visitors. Nico Gonzalez, on his debut, pulled off an excellent cross-field pass to Amar Dedic who headed the ball into Anthony Elanga’s path. He swivelled and saw an instinctive shot go in off a post.
Ten minutes later it got worse for Spurs. A corner was nodded down by sub Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa exploited non-existent defending to acrobatically turn the ball home.
The win was just reward for the Magpies who have made an excellent start to life under Matthias Jaissle. The German remains unbeaten, with four points in the league sandwiching a Carabao Cup win over West Bromwich.
And Newcastle appear to be finally coaxing the best out of Wissa and Elanga, albeit 12 months after their respective big-money arrivals on Tyneside. As well as both getting on the scoresheet here, they were instrumental in causing problems for Spurs’ backline.
Wissa, speaking post-match to Sky Sports, appears to be enjoying a new lease of life under a new manager. “I am not injured and I feel confident now,” said the Congo international forward. “I trust myself and I trust the manager and even though I didn’t play last year I have trained a lot with the players and they know my movements.
“Eddie Howe did a top job and the new manager came with a new identity and that [first goal] is something we have been working on. Every part of the game we are really precise. He is a really dynamic manager, so we have to give everything and I think he is the best signing of Newcastle so far.”
Whilst there’s optimism aplenty at Newcastle, the mood music at Tottenham is very different. They will attempt to address that, again, when they head to Nottingham Forest next Saturday. The same day sees Jaissle’s troops host Bournemouth.
