Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur

BPL 2018-19 – Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur Match Preview

The Premier League season is now underway and we’re getting into the first weekend of the season and we’re going to open up with a Newcastle vs Tottenham game. Newcastle have been under a ton of turmoil during the pre-season with poor results and a lack of good signings have the fans frustrated and they will be protesting before the game about the broken promises by Mike Ashley. Tottenham will be coming into this game just like every other big team with some of their key players not back to full fitness and will most likely rotate the squad to start it off. We’re looking forward to a very interesting game here so let’s get into the preview a little deeper.

Newcastle United

It’s been a summer full of anger, turmoil and dysfunction at Newcastle. With Rafa not being properly backed and a lack of top quality signings, Newcastle seem to be taking a step backwards instead of taking one forward and attempting to compete for Europe. Sure, Newcastle made a multiple of new signings, but it isn’t something to go crazy about, other than Kenedy being back on loan for another season, Newcastle have added average players such as Schar, Rondon, Muto etc and they lost their 2nd highest scorer from last year in Gayle. Instead of going for Europe, Newcastle will probably be a mid table side at best and after finishing 10th last season with a promising end to the season, it doesn’t look like this team will make that step forward. The Newcastle fans have had enough and they are expected to protest against Mike Ashley for breaking promises he gave to the club as he clearly isn’t doing the job he’s supposed to. Furthermore, a couple of awful results from pre-season losing 4-0 to Braga and losing at home to Augsburg add on to the frustration of Newcastle. Also, the players have been skipping media day due to disagreements over the board over their bonuses. All of this adds up to a very negative atmosphere at Newcastle and coming into this big game they must put that to side otherwise coming up against Spurs it could be an ugly start and we may see more ugly scenes going on at Newcastle, especially if they get pounced by a few goals.

Looking at team news, Newcastle will be missing their starting CB Florian Lejeune due to a knee injury and he will most likely be replaced by the new boy Fabian Schar. In terms of new signings Solomon Rondon, and Yoshinori Muto are both expected to play. Kenedy, Shelvey, Lascelles are all available for Newcastle also. Really other than Lejeune, Newcastle have a full strength squad and it really depends on Rafa on what he wants to do. The key players should all be able to start with the mix of a few newcomers. It’s expected to be a relatively decent squad by Newcastle who on paper should cause the depleted Spurs side problems, but as we’ve said the frustrations with the board and an awful pre-season could mean that the Newcastle players are simply not in the right state right now and they could be beaten significantly if they continue to show pre-season form. Getting fans behind their back is going to be a massive key in this match for Newcastle.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham have been the only side in summer who haven’t spent a single penny on players or let go any key players. But unlike, Newcastle there isn’t such turmoil about it. You can understand why this type of thing happened at Tottenham considering the fact that they have been spending a lot of money on the new stadium and in the end Tottenham do have a very strong squad anyway and they’ll be up there with the top teams regardless of not signing anyone. Tottenham will likely have a slightly depleted squad in this game, but it really depends on fitness levels that the players that came back from the world cup are at (we’ll get into team news later). Tottenham showed decent signs in pre-season beating Roma 4-1, Milan 1-0, taking Barca to pens. One blip they had was a 4-1 loss to Girona but these results happen in pre-season and looking as a whole Spurs had a decent pre-season, they could be named ICC champions too if the last result goes their way and they did it without all the key players like Kane, Alli, Lloris, Vertonghen etc. Lucas Moura and Llorente showed some decent form in pre-season and could be potential starters in the opener. Overall, Tottenham are in a pretty decent state right now, Pochettino is happy to have his squad the way it is and well we should expect them to be a very good team again this season and coming into this game, they will look to pick up all 3 points.

In terms of team news, as mentioned many star players are at a question mark on whether they can play from the start, only Pochettino knows who will be able to play so predicting anything right now is tough. Kane, Alli, Lloris, Vertonghen have all returned to training at the start of the week, but it really depends on their fitness whether they will start. We could very likely see Kane and Alli used as impact subs and if that’s the case then Moura and Llorente will slot in to start. And if Lloris can’t play then Vorm will slot in goal. Other than that, the other key players are all expected to start in Eriksen, Son, Davies, Dier, Aurier so Tottenham will still be able to put out a relatively strong side even if Kane Alli and Lloris can’t start. In terms of key absentees Victor Wanyama and Erik Lamela are both out with injuries. Tottenham are the rightly favourites in this match.

What to Expect

Even with a potentially weakened side, we can’t see anything else than a Tottenham win. The state of Newcastle right now makes us believe that it will cost them as the players are simply not going to be mentally right with everything that’s going around the club for this match and that’s suicidal against a side like Tottenham. Newcastle’s poor form in pre-season adds on to our prediction of a Tottenham win as Newcastle have simply been shocking, while Tottenham have shown some really good signs playing without their star men and still beating some really good sides. Pinnacle are currently offering a Tottenham win at 2.05 and these are really good odds for them playing against a struggling side. We predict a 0-2 Spurs win.

Match Odds (Pinnacle)

Newcastle Win – 3.97

Tottenham Win – 2.05

Draw – 3.54

KICK OFF – 11th August 2018 – 12:30am UK Time