Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United

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Sunday 13th August 1.30pm
Premier League
St James' Park​

It's back!
Our season opener is finally here and it's our typical trip oop North.
Facing a newly promoted team isn't ideal either, especially the team that came up as champions.
Our last trip to St James' didn't work out very well, so we really need to make a statement here.

Our hosts had a pretty impressive campaign last season.
They more than hit their target and bounced back to the Premier League immediately.
94 points, 29 wins and 85 goals scored? Benitez may have his detractors, but he got the job done.
They lost their opening two games and exited the cups early, but recovered well.

The Geordies have added a few signings and not lost any major players in the transfer window.
There's some suggestion that Rafa's not happy about their overall business yet, but there's still time.
A couple of late loans wouldn't surprise me, but they're not in bad shape as it is.

There was no corresponding fixture last season, for obvious reasons.
We lost badly there in the last game of the campaign before that though, as our season dropped off horribly.
A dive by a certain Moussa Sissoko changed the momentum drastically in a fully deserved 5-1 loss.
We also lost 2-1 at White Hart Lane, despite dominating and taking the lead.

Neither side has any suspensions for this one.
Newcastle will miss Jamie Sterry and DeAndre Yedlin through injury, while Dwight Gayle is a doubt.
Lamela, Rose and Trippier all look likely to miss it for us, while Wanyama, N'Koudou and Son are doubts.

Lineups for each side's last friendly match:

Spurs: Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele; Sissoko, Eriksen, Alli; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Whiteman, Walker-Peters, Carter-Vickers, Wimmer, Dinzeyi, Miller, Winks, Oakley-Boothe, Georgiou, Janssen.

Newcastle: Elliot , Manquillo, Lejeune , Clark, Dummett, Ritchie, Shelvey, Hayden, Atsu, Perez, Mitrovic.
Subs: Darlow, Gamez, Lascelles, Mbemba, Merino, Aarons, Murphy, De Jong, Diame.

Referee: Andre Marriner.

TV: Sky Sports.

Given the likelihood that we'll have no available, senior right-back for this game, how should we approach it?
Should we stick with the 4-2-3-1 or switch to three at the back?
Should Walker-Peters play, should we switch Dier there or should we do something else entirely?

 

Played for both
David Ginola
Les Ferdinand
Steven Carr
Andros Townsend
Paul Gascoigne
Chris Waddle
Jermaine Jenas
Jonathan Woodgate

Paid a weekly salary by both
Moussa Sissoko

 

Going away for a few days so don't know if I will be able to post so thought I would put all my pre seaason post practice to the test:

We hate a trip to the North East.

Rafa has our number.

Toon ate our Bogey club.

We are weaker than last season.

Will be lucky to lose by less the 3 goals.

We always start seasons badly.

The ref will give bad crucial decisions against us.

It's all doom and gloom I tell you

Why do tottenham always do this to us?

 

God...I can be such a fat finger twat sometimes

 

Probably more accurate than what you meant to write.....

 

Hello lads. It's good to be back! (though I'm not sure how long for).

Please feel free to pop over to our own matchday thread for some (mainly) friendly banter.

http://not606.com/threads/newcastle-v-spurs.351129/

None of us are feeling very confident for this one. Promotion may have looked impressive but we were very inconsistent and looked far from a team ready for the Premier League. We haven't exactly had a great transfer window either. We just don't have the funds to compete with teams who have already pocketed some of the crazy TV money now on offer. I am hoping things calm down a bit and that clubs start realising that they can't shift average players for stupid money. We'll see.

The optimistic side of me is hanging on to the fact that it is Spurs we are playing and for some unexplainable reason you keep losing to us. Though the realist in me knows that won't last and that if both sides play to form then we will lose - and very possibly lose badly.

The pessimistic side of me thinks it is sod's law that Sissoko will play and have his one outstanding game of the season and rip us a new one. It's a world cup year too, so you may even get half a dozen decent games out of him. We all know he is crap, but somehow he does manage to pull out the odd amazing performance when he thinks people are watching.

Anyway, hope those of you travelling up have a good journey (if not a happy one).

 

Wonder what that feels like

 

Well thanks to Danny Boy running his mouth this game has taken on an added layer of significance. It is more crucial than ever to put in a solid performance and get a convincing win. A poor start to the season after the summer we've just had and things could start turning toxic very quickly - and without WHL atmosphere to brighten the mood.

 

Evening all - I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to know that Lawrenson has you down for a 2-0 win in this one

Merson has you nailed on for a win too....

Suddenly, Sunday seems a tiny bit brighter from a N'cle perspective

Safe trip for anyone travelling up

 

Isn't that the random Ligue 1 winger we're signing this summer?

 

I hope our boys are itching to get at 'em.We have a 5-1 itch we need to erase........

 

p.s. Why are we playing on Sunday.Are we still in the Europa League?

 

The real question is why the Friday game is Arsenal vs Leicester. You'd think the Chelsea/Burnley match would be the logical choice for a live game, but nobody's touched it.

 

Why? Chelsea Burnley will be like a visit to the local bus depot.

 

I think what you meant to say was THE MOST EXCITING LEAGUE IN WORLD FOOTBALL.

 

I'm now waiting for this link to turn up on Newsnow.

 

At this rate Edwards might be on the bench...

 

So no mention of Wanyama or Son being out, then? Sounds like good news.

 

Sissoko as right wing back maybe with K-WP on the bench?