Ange Postecoglou stood, as he always does, hands in pockets, at the edge of his technical area. It had been another frustrating afternoon, a defeat that means Spurs have now won just one of their last eight league games. There was general grumbling rather than targeted fury, but the clear sense of another season drifting away for Spurs. For Newcastle, meanwhile, a fifth successive Premier League win means Champions League qualification, which looked highly unlikely when they lost at Brentford a month ago, seems a suddenly realistic target.
Of course it was going to be like this; how could it not have been? This is just the way Spurs do it, mate. There stands Postecoglou; he can do no other. But there also stands Radu Dragusin, and there stands Pape Matar Sarr, mystifyingly far apart. This is about philosophies, but it’s not only about philosophies. There is no system in which the opposition should be allowed to wander through the spaces in the way Newcastle did at times towards the end of the first half. That is not anybody’s process, and Eddie Howe’s side, particularly before half-time, took full advantage.
