Louise Taylor was at St James’ Park to report on the game.
At the end of an astonishing drama featuring two goals apiece from Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak, Eddie Howe’s side rose to third in the Premier League, six points and two places ahead of Tottenham with considerable psychological damage to repair.
Updated
Newcastle opened up quite a gap on Spurs with that win, and look at the goal difference.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 32 | 43 | 75 |
| 2 | Man City | 30 | 50 | 70 |
| 3 | Newcastle | 31 | 29 | 59 |
| 4 | Man Utd | 30 | 9 | 59 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 32 | 7 | 53 |
Sky Sports spoke to Jacob Murphy and Joe Willock.
JM: “We started so well. An amazing day for us.
JW: “It’s amazing, it’s the best stadium in the world and the best fans in the world.
JM on his second goal: “I was just happy to see it go in I knew it was a clean strike. It means everything. I always want to add value. And everyone is about adding value.
JW on his pass for Isak: “It was a brilliant run, I was happy it came off.”
Gareth Beale gets in touch: “I can remember towards the end of Bill Nicholson’s resign that he dropped most of the core first team players due to attitude. Problem is putting raw players in for the next two games against Man U and Liverpool could be even worse.”
Poor Cristian Stellini, a decent man in a horrible position.
Full-time: Newcastle 6-1 Tottenham
Feels odd to say that it could have been worse for Tottenham. Their back four experiment was an unmitigated disaster, and the fallout from that half could be huge. Hugo Lloris was not seen after half-time, the official word being an injury, while Harry Kane ploughed on, actually playing well. But let’s save some plaudits for Newcastle, who seized on their opponent with all guns blazing, and scored some fine goals. Their 20-year-wait for the Champions League will soon be over, with a fine response to last week’s loss to Aston Villa.
90+1 min: Three minutes added on by the referee.
89 min: Danjuma, the Tottenham sub, forces a scrambling save from Nick Pope. Newcastle break and Willock tries to send Gordon away, only for his old pal Porro to clear.
88 min: Andy Flintoff (not that one): “Given we now appear to be doing questionable regime Top Trumps, is there any club currently in the Premier League that is *not* owned by a billionaire or a sovereign wealth fund?”
The answer used to be Delia Smith. But now, no.
86 min: Porro and Gordon in deep conversation, perhaps about how each of them’s January move is working out.
84 min: The olé chant starts again before Almiron is brought down. Tottenham have drawn this half. Which is something, though also nothing. They have at least put some tackles in.
82 min: Boos as Son goes off, and Richarlison comes on for Tottenham. From Spurs fans or Newcastle?
80 min: Silke Bernau joins the debate: “Harking back to Guy Hornsby’s comment at halftime: Yes, THFC is owned by an offshore billionaire, not ideal — but please let’s not pretend that this is in any way morally equivalent to an absolutist regime where women are second-class humans and which holds public mass beheadings and floggings.”
79 min: Gordon almost gets his first for Newcastle, played in down the left, but Forster makes a fine save and then a nuisance of himself to stop the rebound. Gordon looks eager, and senses blood in being up against the hapless Porro.
Updated
76 min: Dan Burn goes on one of his solo runs, gamboling down the flanks, and stopped in his tracks. Sting is in the stands, and looks happy enough. Spurs have so many ghosts in the machine. The message is they’ve no bottle….etc etc…
73 min: Schar goes off, Lascelles on. To nobody’s surprise, Romero has a yellow card.
71 min: “6-1 to the Saudi boys,” sing the Newcastle fans, handily reminding of the source of much of their team’s improvement and their club’s partial ownership by the public investment fund of the gulf state.
70 min: Two more subs: Bruno and Trippier off, the blonde ambition of Anthony Gordon comes on as does Javier Manquillo, the Liverpool legend.
Goal! Newcastle 6-1 Tottenham (Wilson 67)
Honestly, you could make it up. Almiron bundles through and the ball falls to Wilson to slot home. They’d been on the pitch for 65 seconds.
Updated
66 min: Two Newcastle subs: Isak for Wilson, Murphy for Almiron. Both those players will fancy a goal. “Miggy” is still the Toon’s top scorer this season.
65 min: Son shows impetus in cutting inside and having a shot blocked by Schar.
63 min: Joelinton looks to have a knock, a worry for the next few weeks perhaps? No, he looks OK to continue.
62 min: Stellini offers thanks for Davinson Sanchez putting in a shift and pressing hard. Last week, Sanchez was targeted by Tottenham fans and Stellini was horrified. Neither have much of a future at the club but Stellini deserves plaudits for showing a human, protective side for his player.
61 min: Kane receives the ball and then drops back, looking for a teammate who wants the ball. There are very few takers, heads pointing down, blame to be shared around later this afternoon.
59 min: Tottenham into the Newcastle half. Porro slips the ball beyond Burn but gets no further. The misery continues.
57 min: Few kicks and nicks going in. Longstaff is baulked by Perisic, who is at least apologetic. The free-kick comes to nothing when there’s a shoving session.
56 min: Isak chases down the channels only to bring down Romero. There’s a small face-off and then Tottenham appear to be timewasting. At 5-1 down...just amazing.
54 min: Porro, from whom all the problems started, has a shot deflected behind. Spurs go up for a corner, but half-heartedly.
52 min: Kane comes to Tottenham’s rescue in clearing the corner from Dab Burn;s header. They’re really really going to miss him when he’s gone.
Updated
51 min: Is the comeback on? It seems unlikely. Newcastle almost get another as Longstaff scythes through and smashes a shot that Isak can’t get on the end of.
Goal! Newcastle 1-5 Tottenham (Kane 49)
A Spurs attack, and Kane whips down the left, tricks his way past Tripper and wallops in under Pope. A fine goal, but a goal of little worth beyond his own tally. Probably.
Updated
47 min: Newcastle start as they started. Isak heads over a Bruno cross.
46 min: Spurs make a half-time sub: Lloris off for Fraser Forster, the local lad. Lloris is “injured” is the word. Could that be the last game he plays for the club? His contract runs until 2024 but all does not seem well.
Richard Harris gets in touch: “Hi John, I can’t agree with Niall Mullen’s pessimistic view that 17 PL clubs may as well pack it in if United are sold to Qatar. Spurs reached a Champions League final just a few seasons ago and Villa thumped Newcastle last time out so this for me is simply about team spirit and desire. Seville showed on Thursday night what happens when a team is mentally defeated before they leave the dressing room.”
Insert Emergency Alert and Tottenham gag here….
Danny Rose, former Tottenham and Newcastle left-back, has been a highly entertaining part of the Sky Sports team today: “All I’ve been thinking all first half is... how am i unemployed?”
Culture corner with Bob O’Hara:
I‘m curious, which bit of Carmina Burana did the players run on to? Did Spur run on to Olim Lacus Colueram (a song sung by a swan being roasted on a spit. Or was it the usual gambling song that everyone knows?
Once I lived on lakes,
Once I looked beautiful
When I was a swan.
(Male chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
And roasting fiercely!
(Tenor)
The servant is turning me on the spit;
I am burning fiercely on the pyre:
The steward now serves me up.
(Male Chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
And roasting fiercely!
(Tenor)
Now I lie on a plate,
And cannot fly anymore,
I see bared teeth:
(Male Chorus)
Misery me!
Now black
And roasting fiercely!
Guy Hornsby gets in touch: “I totally get Niall Mullen’s view but let’s not kid ourselves here. I’m a Spurs fan but we’ve been owned for two decades by a billionaire whose money is mostly tucked away in the Bahamas. Ok, so Joe Lewis is British, but our moral high ground is a hillock.”
Half-time: Newcastle 5-0 Tottenham
Just amazing, and yet almost predictable. Spurs turned up with the wrong formation and the wrong attitude and got severely punished. Newcastle have been great but again it feels like they have played far better and struggled more. Spurs have 45 minutes to save their…come on now, they’re in for a week of pain.
45 min: Newcastle want a half-dozen before they reach for Gatorade, Deep Heat and smelling salts. Tottenham just want to go home. Now.
Updated
43 min: Lloris makes a save!!! Longstaff’s shot is knocked behind. Newcastle want more goals. Spurs look slightly more comfortable with five at the back.
41 min: How do Spurs’s suits style this shame out? Nigel Adderley, esteemed commentator, has a reasonable stab at it.
‘The volume of interactions events like this generate on social media confirm the popularity and bankability of our brand in a challenging environment’
— Nigel Adderley (@nadderley) April 23, 2023
40 min: Wannabe hard-man Romero clatters Shaun Longstaff and Joe Willock hammers the ball over the bar. A Spurs red card appears a near certainty. May as well embrace the disgrace, I suppose.
39 min: The olé chant is going up from the Toon Army. They’ve maybe left it too late.
Espen B gets in touch: I turned in the game 5 minutes late and was a little surprised to see 2-0. Oh well. No problem with todays technology, I’ll just rewind and watch the goals and then forward and watch live. I did only to find 3-0. Ok, rewind again. Well, you see where I’m going with this…. I’m never going to be able to catch up and actually watch this game live am I?”
37 min: Chris Paraskevas is back in touch: “What’s the modern / future equivalent of the old Match VHS / DVD? The future “Howay 5-0” might be an Artificially Intelligent lifeform in the style of a SKYNET. Or it could be a Chat GPT-style product where you need to input to build the MBM of the game.”
“I’d personally love for them to distribute these highlights in glorious Super 8 film...will give it the surrealist form it deserves.”
The game has descended rather. Jason Tindall is still shouting from the Newcastle sidelines but the contest is done.
36 min: Niall Mullen goes there, and good on him: “Obviously Spurs are an utter shambles but it must be increasingly hard to stay motivated when it’s obvious that the 3 biggest teams in the league next year will be state owned sportswashing projects. Why bother to try to build something the old way when an oil daddy is making your rivals’ wildest fantasies come to pass? I’m old enough to remember the controversy around Jack Walker bankrolling Blackburn. Innocent times.”
There’s always Wrexham…
34 min: Oliver Skipp escapes what might have been a red card for a hefty challenge. That would have added insult to injury.
32 min: Cristian Stellini looks aghast on the sideline. Not sure Signora Stellini should be checking out any Herts house prices or schools for next season. He’s clearly a good football man chucked into the pit of self-loathing that is Tottenham Hotspur FC. Theres been a few victims down the years.
30 min: More stats. “Stop”?
5 - Newcastle have taken a 5-0 lead within 21 minutes, the second-earliest a side has done so in Premier League history, after Man City v Watford in September 2019 (18th minute). Stop. pic.twitter.com/AgRctZdQYZ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 23, 2023
28 min: Trippier loops in a free-kick and Lloris claims to uproarious jeers from his own fans. Oh yeah, the fallout from this one is going to be really ugly.
26 min: Dan Burn concedes a corner. Bruno Guimaraes is limping, and with that foot problem he’s been nursing he may not have long left to play here. Tottenham, it goes without saying, do nothing with the corner.
24 min: Tottenham sub: Pape Sarr off, Davinson Sanchez on, the player who lasted 22 minutes last week and was booed off by Spurs fans. What could possibly go wrong?
Stop press: Spurs go back to a back five. As experiments go….
22 min: Just utterly unbelievable. Newcastle have been irresistible, but have come up against no resistance whatsoever. Tottenham fans have already left the stadium, making that long walk down the stairs and to the nearest pub.
Goal! Newcastle 5-0 Tottenham (Isak, 21)
We’re not making this up. This is unbelieable. Lloris beaten down low by a strike by Isak, who is left alone to do whatever he likes.
Goal! Newcastle 4-0 Tottenham (Isak, 19)
Joe Willock’s ball from deep is beautiful, Tottenham open up like a book, and Isak has no doubt he’s going to score.
Updated
18 min: Newcastle must have gone defensive, they haven’t scored for nine minutes…
17 min: Stats. “Blocks”?
3 - Newcastle are only the sixth side in Premier League history to score three goals within the opening 9 minutes of a Premier League match, and first since Man City vs Burnley in April 2010. Blocks. pic.twitter.com/WmnuiO58Ac
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 23, 2023
Updated
15 min: Tom Stratford gets in touch: “The Tottenham emergency alarm seems to have gone off earlier than 3pm? Sob…Incidentally isn’t that going to make a hell of a racket at 3pm when every phone goes off simultaneously?”
Reminds me, I watched the film Threads the other week.
13 min: First Spurs attack, Kane misses from a fine pass from Skipp. The jeers are loud and ripe. As they are when Lloris clanks the ball out of play from a backpass.
12 min: In days gone by, this would have been the signal for a club to place all of its players on the transfer list. Newcastle, by the way, have been great but have played better and not scored so easily.
10 min: Ryan Mason and Cristian Stellini on the touchline, two condemned men, try to make sense of what’s happened. The answer: lads, it’s Tottenham, and Tottenham at their most vulnerable and chaotic, a clown car of a club.
Goal! Newcastle 3-0 Tottenham (Murphy, 9)
Dier plays the ball out, Schar presses and Murphy smashes the ball, Lloris doesn’t move and Murphy’s face shows the incredulity we all feel.
Updated
7 min: This has been ugly for Tottenham, x-rated stuff. Howay 5-0 cannot be long in coming. So many questions but why did Spurs allow Conte to buy players who are only suited to one type of play?
Goal! Newcastle 2-0 Tottenham (Joelinton, 6)
Oh my, oh wow. A long ball skates through and Joelinton rounds Romero and Lloris, too easy, and scores. Tottenham are an absolute rabble.
Updated
4 min: Romero is trying to marshal the Tottenham defence with some good old-fashioned chestbeating and fist clenching. They might need more than that.
3 min: Porro has struggled enough as a wing-back in defensive terms so to ask him to play full-back is brave, novel, foolhardly, you name it. Joelinton tore into him with glee.
Goal! Newcastle 1-0 Tottenham (Murphy, 2)
….the early news is not good….Joelinton strides on, Porro doesn’t get close, the shot is unleashed and the ball falls to Murphy who slots with ease….
Updated
1 min: And away we go at SJP, Olivier Skipp doing the honours. And yes, it’s a back four for Spurs. Let’s see how Porro and Perisic get on with Newcastle’s power….
Here’s Chris Paraskevas: “G’Day John, 11 pm kick off here. My mate and I have avoided speaking about this game all week, after we watched the Villa game together. I fear a Harry Kane double inside 15 minutes. Beyond the ingrained pessimsm... if you can’t win these types of games: you don’t deserve to play in the Champions League and shouldn’t bother.”
The teams enter the field to Carmina Burana, then the Premier League anthem, now Mark Knopfler’s Local Hero. A thorn between two roses there.
Joe Pearson emails in: “Good morning, John! As a Liverpool fan, I’m rooting for an exciting, high-score draw, so both teams drop points. On another topic, how was your Record Store Day? What limited release items were you able to snag?”
Answer: none, I went to Fulham v Leeds for the Observer. I have only done RSD once, back in 2018, and never listened to the records I bought for £150. There was a Fall 1977 recording i fancied this year, but only as a collector, but I will leave the Glenn Medeiros pineapple-coloured vinyl to the real heads. Might have a dig at the remaining stock this week some time.
By the way, Sting’s in the stadium. This was his offering for this year’s RSD. (Sheesh.)
Complementing the recent RSD double single package of Message In A Bottle, a brand new exclusive edition for RSD 2023, Every Breath You Take packaged in bespoke 2 x 7” special double pack gatefold sleeve.
Features original UK single and a bonus disc featuring the extremely rare track - ‘Every Bomb You Make’ - an exclusive version, with new lyrics, re-recorded specially for the 1980s satirical TV programme “Spitting Image”.
The set also includes the rare instrumental (‘backing track’) version of Every Breath You Take.
Inside the gatefold are two colour-printed inner bags featuring the original A&M label’s ‘company’ sleeve design.
Pressed on limited edition heavyweight red & yellow coloured vinyl.
Remastered and cut at Abbey Road Studios, London.
Tracks:
Disc one – original UK 7” single (red vinyl)
Side A - Every Breath You Take
Side B - Murder By NumbersDisc two – bonus disc (yellow vinyl)
Side A - Every Bomb You Make
Side B - Every Breath You Take (Instrumental)
Cristian Stellini talked to Sky Sports about that new formation. The word is Spurs last didn’t play three/five at the back in January 2022.
It’s a formation we used in the past, it’s not a big change. We used it sometime, we have to be ready to play an important match. You think the players we use are for 4-3-3 but it is only your opinion. This is a big part of out thinking, we need to be ready to fight. We want to try to do our best. No, it’s not the last chance, it’s an important match, we have three games in a week, it’s an important week.
Eddie Howe has had a friendly fireside chat with the Sky team, including an offer from Danny Rose to be his third-choice left-back.
It’s a huge game for us. No denying that at this stage of the season with the games running out. We’re playing one of our competitors in the league so it’s a big moment in our season. We’re pleased to be at home and we hope we can feel the force of the crowd this week.
It’s what we crave as professionals. You want the big games, you want the big occasions and you want it to mean something. We’re determined to express ourselves in the best way possible. We want the occasion to galvanise us, we don’t want to play with any fear or restraints and we want to give the best us.
We have risen to these types of games this season. Hopefully we can find another gear again.
Let’s not forget that Tottenham need a new manager. Jonathan Wilson wishes them good luck.
But identifying that up-and-coming manager is difficult – and given recent appointments and signings, it is not clear there is anybody at Tottenham with the requisite vision. It’s easier, always, to go for proven quality, to assume that success at a previous club will necessarily be replicated at Spurs, when the cases of Mourinho and Conte show that not to be true.
It’s been a big week for Tottenham.
Less than 24 hours later, the club were blindsided by Fifa’s decision to extend Paratici’s 30-month ban from Italian football for alleged false accounting to the rest of the world. The club knew a global punishment for Paratici relating to issues from his Juventus days was a possibility, that it was maybe in the post. It was just not meant to be delivered that day.
Just one Toon change, and that’s Shaun Longstaff coming in for Anthony Gordon, despite that heavy defeat to Aston Villa.
It looks as if Cristian Stellini has abandoned the defensive shape that Antonio Conte so rigidly stuck to, and that means Eric Dier will partner Cristian Romero in central defence, while Pedro Porro, the player they said can’t play anything other than wing-back, will play full-back. Similar goes for Ivan Perisic. Clement Lenglet drops to the bench, with Pape Sarr starting.
Updated
The teams are in
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Botman, Schar, Burn, Longstaff, Joelinton, Murphy, Willock, Guimaraes, Isak. Subs: Dubravka, Lascelles, Gordon, Wilson, Ritchie, Targett, Manquillo, Almiron, Anderson
Tottenham: Lloris, Porro, Romero, Dier, Perisic, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Sarr, Kulusevski, Son, Kane. Subs: Forster, Sanchez, Richarlison, Danjuma, Tanganga, Davies, Lenglet, Devine, Mundle
Preamble
When Newcastle won at Tottenham in October, it became clear their challenge for the top four would be a serious one. It was also apparent that Tottenham’s title challenge would never, ever materialise. And it has come to pass, with Antonio Conte a casualty along the way. Newcastle can take a huge step to returning to the Champions League for the first time in 20 years while Tottenham might find life easier from what has become a less than comfortable home. Last week saw both teams beaten, Aston Villa, the stalking horse, smashing Newcastle 3-0, before Bournemouth stole a last-gasp, but deserved win at the Tottenham Stadium. Villa’s draw with Brentford ease Tottenham’s worries over dropping to fifth but visiting St James is daunting. Tottenham have not won a league match outside of London since beating Bournemouth 3-2 on 29 October.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 32 | 43 | 75 |
| 2 | Man City | 30 | 50 | 70 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 30 | 9 | 59 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 30 | 24 | 56 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 31 | 12 | 53 |
