Tottenham pay the price for another slow start in 2-1 loss to Newcastle
Tottenham suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season as Newcastle United inflicted a 2-1 loss at St James Park this afternoon.
Ange Postecoglou’s men began with a 1-1 stalemate at Leicester City before humbling Everton last time out, but there’s something about the Magpies in recent years that puts them off their game.
Harvey Barnes, who made his eighth Premier League start for Leicester (16 sub apps), put Eddie Howe’s men in front. The one-time England international also scored on his most recent start versus Brentford in May, which means he’s netted in back-to-back top-flight starts for the first time since November 2022 for Leicester City.
It also reestablished a trend in this fixture as Newcastle have scored first in eight of their last nine Premier League meetings with Tottenham (four wins, one draw and three losses). Being placed behind the eight ball isn’t something new to Postecoglou’s side, and they demonstrated their mentality monsters credentials last term when only Liverpool (28) gained more points from losing positions.
Dan Burn’s unfortunate equaliser (his second Premier League own goal, and first since January 2021 against Wolves for Brighton) could have seen the Lilywhites mount another come-from-behind win, but still remaining on the field was their nemesis, Alexander Isak, who sealed all three points 12 minutes from time. Against no other team has the Swedish marksman scored more Premier League goals than against Tottenham (5 — level with West Ham).
VAMOS pic.twitter.com/RelHZBubc7
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) September 1, 2024
Furthermore, since the start of last season, Isak has scored 15 Premier League goals at St. James’ Park, with only Erling Haaland (18 at Etihad Stadium) and Cole Palmer (16 at Stamford Bridge) scoring more at a single venue in this time.
The defeat also highlighted Tottenham’s recent struggles on the road. Tottenham have lost four of their last six away Premier League games (one win and one draw), more than their first 15 on the road under Postecoglou beforehand (six wins, six draws and three losses).
In what has been a challenging summer for Newcastle, whose transfer activity hasn’t exactly set the world alight, with Howe telling supporters glory will return but not anytime soon, this was a morale-boosting success, especially when they’ve won both of their first two home matches of a league season for the first time since 2009-10 in the Championship, and the first time in the Premier League since 2000/01.
Newcastle have also won four of their last five Premier League meetings with Tottenham (one loss), with this being their 26th overall meeting in competition history, their joint-most against a single opponent in the competition (also v Aston Villa).
