Tottenham welcome Newcastle United to North London this Saturday lunchtime for both side’s first game of 2025.
The hosts have only won once in their last seven league matches and face another challenging test with Newcastle in scintillating form.
At his pre-match press conference, a beleaguered Ange Postecoglou announced that a virus has struck the Tottenham squad. According to reports, only seven first-team players trained on Friday morning.
Destiny Udogie is set to be out for six weeks with a hamstring injury but Mikey Moore and Richarlison should return next week. In the first game back from a lengthy ban, Rodrigo Bentancur picked up another suspension against Wolves and will miss today’s contest.
Newcastle enjoyed a productive December and will be hoping to carry that momentum into the next calendar year. Eddie Howe will have to operate without Fabian Schar after the defender picked up his fifth booking of the season.
Sven Botman has declared he is ready to feature, but the Dutchman will likely be eased back into action after last playing in March. Nick Pope is still unavailable alongside Callum Wilson and Emil Krafth.
A late equaliser from Jorgen Strand Larsen caused more misery for Tottenham last weekend.
Spurs were on course for a first league victory at home since the start of November as they turned around an early deficit to lead 2-1 in North London. But that sucker punch blow from Wolves saw them drop points again in a game that included captain Heung-min Son missing a penalty.
Ange Postecoglou’s side reside in 11th position and are closer to the relegation places than the top four. They will be hoping 2025 brings them some good fortune to turn their season around.
Newcastle are the in-form team in the Premier League and have won five consecutive matches in all competitions.
Manchester United were the most recent team to feel the wrath of the Magpies, with Newcastle winning 2-0 away from home. First-half headers from Alexander Isak and Joelinton saw Eddie Howe’s team win a league match at Old Trafford for the first time since 2013.
Prior to that victory in Manchester, Newcastle had swept aside Aston Villa, Ipswich Town and Leicester City. They didn’t concede in any of those four matches, scoring 13 goals in the process.
Newcastle are in the ascendancy and their recent run of form means they are only three points outside of the coveted top four places.Newcastle overcame Spurs once again at St. James’ Park to claim all three points earlier in the season.
The visitors started brightly and thought they had opened the scoring when Cristian Romero headed past Nick Pope, but the Argentine was offside.
Pope was then equal to two efforts from distance by Pape Matar Sarr with the goalkeeper doing well to push the strikes away from danger.
Against the run of play, Newcastle took the lead thanks to a lethal finish from Harvey Barnes. Jacob Murphy fired a cross into the path of the former Leicester City player whose strike was always spinning away from Guglielmo Vicario and into the side netting.
Newcastle kick off 2025 with a North London double-header, as we aim to gain the upper hand over Tottenham in the League and Arsenal in the Cup, in the space of just four days.
The Toon have tasted victories over both teams at St James’ Park this season and will be looking to build on an incredible run of form that has seen us win five games in a row, scoring sixteen goals and conceding just the one.
Spurs can only look on enviously, having won just one Premier League match in December and finding themselves six league placings and eight points behind their black and white opponents.
The past six League matches have seen United win four, draw one and lose one. The four victories have come in our last four matches with impressive wins over Leicester, Ipswich, Villa and Man U, making NUFC one of the form teams at present.
Our draw wasn’t bad either – a 3-3 thriller with Liverpool where the Toon were desperately unlucky not to beat the table toppers. Our one blemish in this sequence saw a 4-2 defeat away at Brentford. The past six PL matches have seen Newcastle rack up eighteen goals and concede seven whilst picking up thirteen points. Keep up the great work lads! We’re currently fifth in the league and would move level on points (at least temporarily) with fourth placed Chelsea, if getting another victory.
Tottenham haven’t had the best of runs recently, having won one, drawn one and lost four of their past six games. They beat Southampton 5-0 and drew with Wolves 2-2 but defeats to Forest, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bournemouth have made for a fairly dismal time, as they find themselves eleventh in the league and will end the weekend between tenth and fourteenth.
Newcastle went to Old Trafford on Monday night and taught Man United a lesson, in an electric first half that blew the Red Devils away. Early goals from Isak and Joelinton had the away end in raptures and when Tonali hit the post and the Toon had a third disallowed, it looked like an absolute rout was on the cards. Sensible game management allowed NUFC to take their foot off the gas in the second half and a 2-0 win for the real United ensured a very happy New Year indeed.
Tottenham played host to Wolves on Sunday evening and were left ultimately frustrated when a late equalising goal cost them two points. Spurs came from behind to lead 2-1 until conceding with just three minutes to go, meaning they had to settle for a point.
