Tottenham vs Newcastle – Match preview and team news

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·04 de janeiro de 2025

Tottenham vs Newcastle – Match preview and team news

Tottenham welcome Newcastle United to North London this Saturday lunchtime for both side’s first game of 2025.

The hosts have only won once in their last seven league matches and face another challenging test with Newcastle in scintillating form.

Vídeos OneFootball

At his pre-match press conference, a beleaguered Ange Postecoglou announced that a virus has struck the Tottenham squad. According to reports, only seven first-team players trained on Friday morning.

MATCHDAY 💪 🆚 Newcastle United 🏟️ @SpursStadium 🏆 @PremierLeague ⏰ 12.30pm GMT
– sábado, 4 de janeiro de 2025

Destiny Udogie is set to be out for six weeks with a hamstring injury but Mikey Moore and Richarlison should return next week. In the first game back from a lengthy ban, Rodrigo Bentancur picked up another suspension against Wolves and will miss today’s contest.

Newcastle enjoyed a productive December and will be hoping to carry that momentum into the next calendar year. Eddie Howe will have to operate without Fabian Schar after the defender picked up his fifth booking of the season.

Sven Botman has declared he is ready to feature, but the Dutchman will likely be eased back into action after last playing in March. Nick Pope is still unavailable alongside Callum Wilson and Emil Krafth.

Tottenham vs Newcastle – Match preview and team news

Form

Tottenham: WWLLD

A late equaliser from Jorgen Strand Larsen caused more misery for Tottenham last weekend.

Spurs were on course for a first league victory at home since the start of November as they turned around an early deficit to lead 2-1 in North London. But that sucker punch blow from Wolves saw them drop points again in a game that included captain Heung-min Son missing a penalty.

Ange Postecoglou’s side reside in 11th position and are closer to the relegation places than the top four. They will be hoping 2025 brings them some good fortune to turn their season around.

Newcastle: WWWWW

Newcastle are the in-form team in the Premier League and have won five consecutive matches in all competitions.

Manchester United were the most recent team to feel the wrath of the Magpies, with Newcastle winning 2-0 away from home. First-half headers from Alexander Isak and Joelinton saw Eddie Howe’s team win a league match at Old Trafford for the first time since 2013.

Prior to that victory in Manchester, Newcastle had swept aside Aston Villa, Ipswich Town and Leicester City. They didn’t concede in any of those four matches, scoring 13 goals in the process.

Newcastle are in the ascendancy and their recent run of form means they are only three points outside of the coveted top four places.

Last Meeting: Newcastle 2-1 Tottenham, Premier League, 1st September 2024

Newcastle overcame Spurs once again at St. James’ Park to claim all three points earlier in the season.

The visitors started brightly and thought they had opened the scoring when Cristian Romero headed past Nick Pope, but the Argentine was offside.

Pope was then equal to two efforts from distance by Pape Matar Sarr with the goalkeeper doing well to push the strikes away from danger.

Against the run of play, Newcastle took the lead thanks to a lethal finish from Harvey Barnes. Jacob Murphy fired a cross into the path of the former Leicester City player whose strike was always spinning away from Guglielmo Vicario and into the side netting.

Spurs were undeterred by the setback and continued to press for a goal of their own after the interval. Wilson Odobert somehow missed the target from two yards out before Brennan Johnson’s rebound forced Dan Burn into scoring an own goal.

But Eddie Howe’s side exploited Tottenham’s high line to find the winner with ten minutes to go. Joelinton’s piercing pass found Murphy who burst into the box before unselfishly setting up Alexander Isak for a tap-in.

Ange Postecoglou’s outfit couldn’t find a second equaliser and returned to North London empty-handed.

Predicted Lineups

Tottenham: Forster, Porro, Gray, Dragusin, Spence; Bissouma, Sarr, Maddison; Kulusevski, Solanke, Son.

Newcastle: Dubravka, Livramento, Kelly, Burn, Hall; Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.

Who is the referee?

Andy Madley will be the match official. He will be assisted by Nick Hopton and Craig Taylor while Lewis Smith will be the fourth official. The VAR will be Chris Kavanagh and he will be assisted by Sian Massey-Ellis.