North London awaits – Tottenham v Newcastle preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Tottenham v Newcastle preview.

Saturday 4th January – 12:30pm

Newcastle kick off 2025 with a North London double-header, as we aim to gain the upper hand over Tottenham in the League and Arsenal in the Cup, in the space of just four days.

The Toon have tasted victories over both teams at St James’ Park this season and will be looking to build on an incredible run of form that has seen us win five games in a row, scoring sixteen goals and conceding just the one.

Spurs can only look on enviously, having won just one Premier League match in December and finding themselves six league placings and eight points behind their black and white opponents.

Form

The past six League matches have seen United win four, draw one and lose one. The four victories have come in our last four matches with impressive wins over Leicester, Ipswich, Villa and Man U, making NUFC one of the form teams at present.

Our draw wasn’t bad either – a 3-3 thriller with Liverpool where the Toon were desperately unlucky not to beat the table toppers. Our one blemish in this sequence saw a 4-2 defeat away at Brentford. The past six PL matches have seen Newcastle rack up eighteen goals and concede seven whilst picking up thirteen points. Keep up the great work lads! We’re currently fifth in the league and would move level on points (at least temporarily) with fourth placed Chelsea, if getting another victory.

Tottenham haven’t had the best of runs recently, having won one, drawn one and lost four of their past six games. They beat Southampton 5-0 and drew with Wolves 2-2 but defeats to Forest, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bournemouth have made for a fairly dismal time, as they find themselves eleventh in the league and will end the weekend between tenth and fourteenth.

Newcastle went to Old Trafford on Monday night and taught Man United a lesson, in an electric first half that blew the Red Devils away. Early goals from Isak and Joelinton had the away end in raptures and when Tonali hit the post and the Toon had a third disallowed, it looked like an absolute rout was on the cards. Sensible game management allowed NUFC to take their foot off the gas in the second half and a 2-0 win for the real United ensured a very happy New Year indeed.

Tottenham played host to Wolves on Sunday evening and were left ultimately frustrated when a late equalising goal cost them two points. Spurs came from behind to lead 2-1 until conceding with just three minutes to go, meaning they had to settle for a point.

Stat attack!

Newcastle have scored in each of their past five visits to Spurs, winning two, losing two and drawing one.

Newcastle have tasted eleven Premier League victories away at Spurs.

Toon have won five of their past ten league trips to Tottenham.

Don’t bank on a clean sheet! Newcastle haven’t achieved one in their past twenty visits to Spurs. The last one coming in 2003 when Jenas scored a last minute winner in a 1-0 success.

Memorable match

When Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle travelled to White Hart Lane in 2008, the entertainers were revived for one glorious afternoon. Conceding an early goal did little to dampen the spirits and the Toon were back level when a grass cutting effort from Nicky Butt found the bottom corner on the stroke of half-time.

The second half would live long in the memory and was just seven minutes old, when United took the lead as Geremi planted a free-kick into the bottom corner. Ten minutes later, a cheeky backheel from Mark Viduka played in Owen to clip a shot past England colleague Paul Robinson and send the away end into delirium! This was a fine team goal but would soon be overshadowed by a strike of individual brilliance. Obefemi Martins had a habit of scoring against Spurs and when he ran at their defence he had one thing in mind, dance past two of them and slot the ball past the stranded ‘keeper to put the Toon 4-1 up. This was a tremendous, if unexpected, away victory in one of the highlights of the season. Final Score Spurs 1- 4 Newcastle.

Played for both

Sir Les Ferdinand was an absolute legend at Newcastle, scoring fifty goals in just eighty four appearances over two seasons in the famous black and white.

Signed for a club record six million pounds, he was instantly a fan favourite when rounding the ‘keeper and crashing home an effort on his debut at home to Coventry. He’d go on to score an astonishing fourteen goals in his first ten league matches for NUFC.

Issue 86 – January 1996

With twenty nine goals in his first season and twenty one in his second, there was no way he should have been sold to Tottenham by miserable Kenny Dalglish in 1997. This goes down as one of the absolute worst footballing decisions in my time supporting Newcastle… and that’s saying something!

Sir Les holds the accolade of being the only former player I’ve seen applauded by St James’ Park when scoring against the Toon (a late consolation for Leicester City). A high honour indeed and a reflection of the esteem in which we hold this legendary number nine.

Jermaine Jenas was signed by Sir Bobby Robson in 2002 and was given a baptism of fire when making his full debut in a victory at the Stadium of Light. He looked an absolute world beater for a time and scored a number of good goals as he went on to win the PFA young player of the year award in 2003. Unfortunately, form, fitness and a seemingly poor attitude got in the way of further progress at NUFC and few tears were shed when he signed for Tottenham in 2005.

Jonathan Woodgate is sadly another tale of what might have been. One of the best Newcastle defenders of the Premier League era, when he played, which unfortunately was few and far between. Rotten luck with injuries saw him sold on to Real Madrid in 2004 where he had to wait almost a year for his debut due to fitness concerns. He signed for Tottenham (after a spell at Middlesbrough) in 2008 and scored the winning goal in the League Cup final against Chelsea a few months later to secure their first trophy since 1999.

Managers

“I think we need to win games to achieve what we want on a regular basis. Sometimes you need to do it to believe you can do it and I thought we managed the game really well and played really well in the first half. I was delighted with the team. We know this has been an unkind fixture to us for a long, long time. To almost break new ground here and win in the manner that we did is really pleasing”

Ange Postecoglou following a 2-2 draw at home to Wolves:

“Yes, it’s a tough one to take, disappointed with the outcome. We went a goal down but after that, I thought we had control of the game. We scored our goals, had great opportunities to get a third, just to kill the game off. You know when you don’t, it’s 2-1 and the game is always in the balance. They didn’t create much, Fraser had one save to make, but there is always that possibility and we leave disappointed with the outcome”

Charity

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online go HERE.

Newcastle are on an amazing run of form and Tottenham haven’t been great recently. I have this nagging feeling however, that both teams will be up for this one and it’ll end honours even. I fancy Newcastle to come from behind to take a very valuable point into our crucial cup semi-final on Tuesday night. Tottenham 1-1 Newcastle.