Twenty shots and 49 touches in the box but Spurs are sunk by Isak goal

“Up the Premier League we go,” the fans roared down from the Gallowgate End of St James’ Park. It was difficult to fathom quite how, but still, Newcastle United are there, in a European place, unbeaten this season, dragging results out of a team who are being stretched to breaking point with the campaign less than a month old.
Tottenham Hotspur had 20 attempts on goal, hit the woodwork, had 49 touches in the Newcastle penalty area and dominated territorially. The look of complete and utter bewilderment on Ange Postecoglou’s face said it all. Spurs have conceded 12 goals on their past three trips to the North East.
“Tottenham Hotspur, it’s happening again,” also tumbled down from the stands. That was only when the game was in its final throes, and when Alexander Isak had scored a breakaway goal with 12 minutes remaining, for this was anything but a comfortable afternoon for Newcastle.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Postecoglou said. “We let them off the hook. We had the chances to win the game, probably comfortably, but we walk away with nothing. When we’re creating the amount of chances we have, we should be getting more in return.”
At times it felt like the summer of inertia was coming home to roost for Newcastle. At a time where music reunions are so in vogue, Eddie Howe is being asked to create new songs with the same old material.
Thus far he has managed to, but it says something that Newcastle have had four shots on target in their two home Premier League games this season — the other was against Southampton — and have scored three goals and picked up six points. That feels unsustainable.
As a show of strength, amid the future of a transfer window with no major additions to the Newcastle first team, three members of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the club’s owner, were in attendance, including the club chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
It was as low-key a presence as Al-Rumayyan’s first appearance at the stadium had been boisterous. It was Spurs then too, back in October 2021, just after the PIF had completed its takeover of the club.
The mood at the time was euphoric and when Al-Rumayyan took his bow in the directors’ box he was afforded an ovation more befitting a Newcastle United legend like Kevin Keegan. It was extraordinary. This time it was ordinary. How quickly things change.
As if to add to the awkwardness, as he sat next to the club’s sporting director, Paul Mitchell, who failed to get that big signing in the transfer window, a flag dedicated to the people who used to sign players, Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, and who abruptly left in the summer, flew in the Gallowgate End.
It almost felt fitting that Newcastle’s opening goal should be created by a player, Lloyd Kelly, who arrived for nothing on a free transfer, signed in the summer before the club’s boardroom rejig. It was not envisaged that Newcastle would be relying on free transfers when fans celebrated outside St James’ Park with the saxophonist from Sam Fender’s band when the takeover was finally announced.
Kelly is proving an astute addition, however, solving a problematic left-back position, and it was from deep on the Newcastle left that he created the opening goal, going past James Maddison and then pulling a cross back to Harvey Barnes.
Barnes, with an eye for goal that has now resulted in him scoring six times from eight Premier League starts since his move from Leicester last summer, allowed the ball to bounce before cleverly flashing a shot across Guglielmo Vicario and into the corner of the Tottenham goal. Kelly had earlier gone close with a header and Barnes was clearly finding his range with a shot that was narrowly wide.
Chances came with far greater frequency throughout for Spurs. Wilson Odobert shot over and Nick Pope denied a powerful drive from Pape Matar Sarr. His return has been crucial to the unbeaten start.
“Nick’s ability to keep the ball out of the net is unrivalled in my opinion,” Eddie Howe, the Newcastle head coach, said. “A couple of the saves he made were incredible. We know longer term we are going to need to improve our performance. We are not playing with enough control or composure but we are showing defensive and aggressive qualities.”
That was a fair and accurate description. Newcastle’s defence looked exactly what it is after a failed summer of chasing Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi: makeshift.
For the second half, shooting down the St James’ hill towards the Gallowgate End, Tottenham camped in Newcastle’s territory.
It was all Spurs, and it said everything about how woeful they are in front of goal that Dan Burn put them level. How different things might have been if Dominic Solanke and Richarlison had not both been missing.
They would end up with 20 shots, but only the Newcastle man could beat Pope. The Newcastle goalkeeper parried a shot from Maddison to Brennan Johnson to his left in the 56th minute. The Spurs substitute hit the ball back across goal and Burn, in an attempt to clear, smashed it into his own net.
From then until the 78th minute, Newcastle and Howe were clinging for their lives to a point. Pedro Porro had already seen a shot deflect off the Newcastle crossbar with Pope beaten. Odobert then had a shot deflected wide, Son Heung-min was denied only by a superb and desperate goalline clearance from Bruno Guimarães, and when Maddison stuck a fine, curling left-footed shot from 25 yards, Pope produced a wonderful save at full stretch to his right, to tip over. He did likewise from Porro, Radu Dragusin headed narrowly wide, chances came and went and Postecoglou’s hand appeared stuck to his head such were the continued looks of frustration.
Such profligacy would prove costly.
After excellent work from Joelinton in the 78th minute he turned Maddison and played a fine through-ball that sent Jacob Murphy scampering beyond Destiny Udogie. Murphy timed his ball to perfection and arriving at pace to his left was Isak to strike the game-winning goal, and his first of the season.
It was enough for victory, to the sheer disbelief of Postecoglou.
Newcastle (4-3-3): N Pope 8 — T Livramento 7, E Krafth 7, D Burn 8, L Kelly 7 (L Hall 68min, 4) — S Longstaff 7 (S Tonali 68, 6), B Guimaraes 6, Joelinton 7 — A Gordon 6 (M Almirón 90), A Isak 7, H Barnes 7 (J Murphy 61, 6). Booked Kelly, Longstaff, Joelinton, Guimarães
Tottenham (4-3-3): G Vicario 6 — P Porro 8, R Dragusin 7, C Romero 7, D Udogie 7 — Pape Matar Sarr 7 (B Johnson 46, 7), Y Bissouma 8 (R Bentancur 82), J Maddison 6 (L Bergvall 82) — W Odobert 6 (T Werner 74), D Kulusevski 5, Son Heung-min 6. Booked Sarr, Bissouma, Maddison, Bentancur.
Referee R Jones 7.