From going unbeaten in the first 10 games in this 2023/2024 English Premier League Season to become the winless Spurs we know of late in November and December thus far, Tottenham Hotspur’s journey has been a rollercoaster ride in the English top-flight football. Fortunately, the winless Spurs finally turned things around to the better end in their last night’s game against Newcastle United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, coming out as the 4-1 winner against the Magpies with Brazilian forward Richarlison’s outstanding performance in the form of a brace in the Matchday 16 fixture.
Winless Spurs Trashed the Magpies at Home
The winless Spurs lost four of their previous five games, including defeats to Chelsea, Wolves, Aston Villa and West Ham United, having also drawn the remaining one game with Manchester City in a six-goal thriller. Hence, coming into the game against Newcastle United at home last night, Ange Postecoglou’s men had only one goal, that was, going back to winning ways using everything they can.
To the winless Spurs’ delight, they broke the deadlock minutes before the half hour mark and never looked back in the game. Destiny Udogie, who committed a blunder that resulted in West Ham United’s winning goal last time out in the Premier League, was the scorer of the winless Spurs’ first goal, when he fed Son Heung-min the ball momentarily after he received it in the middle. The Tottenham captain then took a dribble, and fired in a delivery, which was met by the charging Udogie for the first blood of the game.
With the winless Spurs up 1-0 at home, it was time for Richarlison to put on a show before the desperate fans. The 26-year-old had to thank his skipper Son for the first goal of his brace, when the South Korean star beat his defender with his deceptive footwork, and offered his second assist in the span of 12 minutes. Richarlison then completed his brace right at the hour mark, after Pedro Porro sent an inch-perfect long ball into the box, followed by the Brazilian striker’s superb control and a cheeky slide into the back on the net. The goal also meant the 26-year-old has now scored more goals than his first season as a Spurs player.
Check here out to see how West Ham United came from behind to beat Spurs 2-1 last time around.
A Consolation Goal for Joelinton and Magpies
The game and the 3 points were nothing but sealed after the home team went 3-0 up, but Son decided to get himself on the scoresheet for the winless Spurs’ fourth the evening from the spot. The 31-year-old South Korean was brought down by opposing shot stopper Martin Dúbravka, leaving the referee with no choice but to award the home side a penalty. Despite the goalkeeper’s guess, Son’s subsequent effort managed to go in, adding an icing on the cake for Spurs.
The visiting Newcastle United found a consolation goal in the first minute of the added time, when the unmarked Joelinton smashed the ball into the bottom left corner to make the score line a little bit more respectful. Nevertheless, that was the only goal the Magpies could score all night, and they succumbed to their second defeat in a row in the Premier League while the winless Spurs finally shrugged off their five-game miserable run with a statement victory at home.
View this post on Instagram
Postecoglou: “The Premier League Is Unrelenting.”
The 58-year-old Postecoglou had only praises for his team’s performance last night. “I can’t fault the lads. They put in a massive effort today. We were brighter in the front third, I thought Sonny [Son Heung-min] was excellent and that sort of thing feeds off to the other guys. You rely on your leaders to take initiative; We could have had more goals but our attacking play was as good as it has been for a while. We are getting players back.
“You can see Newcastle are running on fumes. We’ve gone through that, and hopefully we are coming out the other side. Both boxes, we were a lot better; Having [Cristian] Romero back helped with that. We have had to battle away and come January we’ll get players back. The Premier League is unrelenting; The other teams aren’t going to feel sorry for you.”
The Tottenham gaffer’s sentiments were echoed by his captain Son, who had this to say during the post-match conference: “When you’re winning you enjoy it more. To bounce back like that is very important. We don’t want to make any more mistakes like we have done. I thought today was fantastic. I hope we can continue to perform like this and stay humble. We said we had to be more ruthless. We were ruthless today and were creating chances. We did that fantastic job. To beat Newcastle 4-1 is not easy. They are a very strong side, so credit to all the players and fans.”
You May Also Like: Could Girona Replicate Leicester’s 2015/16 Glorious Run After Their 4-2 Away Triumph Against Barcelona?
FULL TIME: Spurs 4-1 Newcastle
Tottenham return to winning ways. Thoughts? 👇 pic.twitter.com/BAHtbaY8n2
— The Spurs Web (@thespursweb) December 10, 2023