Tottenham vs Newcastle Stats:
Anthony Gordon has been directly involved in a goal in each of his last four league appearances for Newcastle (1 goal, 3 assists).
Ange Postecoglou will be desperately hoping a new year brings improved fortunes when his struggling Tottenham host Newcastle United in Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off.
Pressure continues to mount on Postecoglou after Jørgen Strand Larsen’s late leveller snatched a 2-2 draw for Wolves on Sunday. Rodrigo Bentancur and Brennan Johnson had dragged Tottenham ahead after Hwang Hee-chan’s opener, only for another familiar disappointment to follow in the 87th minute.
Johnson has been a rare positive in an erratic season for Spurs. He is their top scorer in all competitions this term with 11 goals, while the Welshman has also either scored (2) or assisted (2) a goal in each of his last four Premier League home games.
However, Johnson’s success has not translated into positive results at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Postecoglou’s side are winless in five Premier League home games, their longest such streak since an eight-match run between March and October 2008 under Juande Ramos.
Spurs last had a longer winless run at home in a single season between October 1993 and April 1994 (14), and their struggles have seen them slip down to 11th in the table – a massive 11 points adrift of the top four.
There is no good news on the injury front to ease Postecoglou’s troubles. Destiny Udogie limped off with a hamstring issue against Wolves, joining the likes of Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Guglielmo Vicario as absentees. Bentancur is also suspended after picking up a needless fifth yellow card of the season late on in his last outing.
Improvements are not guaranteed here either, considering Tottenham have lost their first league game in two of the last five calendar years (W2 D1), as many times as they had in the previous 16 years combined (W11 D3).
Newcastle have won their first league match in just one of the last 12 calendar years (D3 L8), winning 1-0 at Stoke City on New Year’s Day 2018. However, Eddie Howe’s side make the trip north in impressive form.
A 2-0 victory over Manchester United on Monday made it four straight top-flight victories to end 2024, lifting Newcastle to fifth in the league and just three points behind Chelsea.
Alexander Isak was again on target at Old Trafford, taking him to 25 Premier League goals in 2024 – only Alan Shearer in 2002 has scored more in a single year for the club (27). The Swedish striker’s 43 goals in the competition overall can also only be bettered by Shearer (148), Callum Wilson (47) and Peter Beardsley (46) for Newcastle.
Anthony Gordon teed up Newcastle’s second strike against United – a header from Joelinton – and has now been directly involved in a goal in each of his last four Premier League appearances (1 goal, 3 assists). He has also assisted in his last two away games against Ipswich Town and Man Utd.
Fabian Schär will be suspended for this clash after his fifth caution of the season last time out, while Sven Botman, Emil Krafth, Nick Pope, Jamaal Lascelles and Wilson remain as the other confirmed absentees for the visitors.
Tottenham vs Newcastle Head-to-Head
This pair have amassed 189 goals between them in Premier League games, the third-highest scoring fixture in the competition’s history.
Indeed, Tottenham and Newcastle have met 59 times without ever drawing 0-0, the most in Premier League history.
It could be tough to split the pair again – Tottenham have won two of their last three home league games against Newcastle, as many as they had in their previous seven. However, Howe’s side have won four of their last five Premier League outings against Spurs (L1), previously taking 15 games to achieve that many wins.
Newcastle are also out for the double over Spurs for the second time in three seasons, having done so just once in 12 campaigns before, after Harvey Barnes and Isak scored in a 2-1 win in the reverse fixture this term.
Tottenham vs Newcastle Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is leaning towards an away win on Saturday, with Newcastle triumphing in 41% of the 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Tottenham managed to end a five-game winless run on home soil in 34.5% of data-led sims, while the draw was ranked at 24.5%.
Will Newcastle United’s winning streak continue? On Monday night, the Magpies swatted Manchester United aside at Old Trafford, with Alexander Isak and Joelinton on target in the first 20 minutes and, in truth, the 2-0 scoreline flattered the hosts, given that Newcastle could very easily have run riot in the first half. Nevertheless, this makes it five successive victories for Eddie Howe’s team, ousting Brentford from the EFL Cup while also concluding 2024 with four league victories on the spin, scoring 16 times across these five wins.
As a result, the Toon Army have propelled up to fifth, which is expected to be enough to secure Champions League qualification. This is the first of two crucial visits to North London in just four days for Newcastle, also set to face Arsenal in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final this forthcoming Tuesday. Ahead of that tie, will the traveling Geordies have another victory to celebrate?
In stark contrast to their visitors from the North East, Tottenham Hotspur are in terrible form, not going into their own League Cup semi-final against Liverpool with much belief at all. On Sunday, Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw by Wolves at home, falling behind early but then leading thanks to first half goals from Rodrigo Bentancur and then Brennan Johnson, only to concede three minutes from time.
This means Ange Postecoglou’s side won just one of their seven league matches in December, their sole victory of the month coming at rock-bottom Southampton, while they fell behind in 15 seperate Premier League home games throughout 2024, a new calendar year record. The Lilywhites continue to languish in 11th and, following cup ties against Liverpool and Tamworth, their next two league fixtures are away at Arsenal and then Everton, so the pressure will only crank up further if they fail to collect three points here.