TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, it’s happened again.
New manager? Check. New players? Check. Demolished at St James’ Park? Of course.
Battered 6-1 here last year, it was Ange Postecoglou’s turn to leave Tyneside feeling blue.
The shellshocked Aussie couldn’t believe his eyes as his Champions League-chasing side crumbled to their heaviest defeat of his reign.
Throw on a Spurs kit at St James’ and they just can’t help disintegrating.
Newcastle started the mauling with two first-half goals in 95 seconds and the abject North Londoners never recovered.
If you’re looking for the worst individual performance of the season then look no further than Micky van de Ven.
The defender had a howler for the first three goals, though he was far from the only culprit.
Alexander Isak was the Toon hero, scoring a brace to make it 17 Prem goals for the campaign and seven from his last seven.
Anthony Gordon was the other tormentor-in-chief, bagging his 10th of the season and running bedraggled Tottenham ragged all afternoon in front of England boss Gareth Southgate.
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It’s back-to-back wins for the first time since December, leaving a Europa League spot – unlikely just a few weeks ago – well within their grasp.
Sorry Spurs have now won just two of their last 10 away games.
And after fluffing their lines in spectacular fashion, nervous fans will be left cheering on Arsenal today against Aston Villa to keep their Champions League dream alive.
It didn’t take long for a sense of deja vu to take hold in the sunshine – and to think they started so brightly.
Timo Werner had the best early opening after Brennan Johnson gassed Dan Burn down the right and put it on a plate at the back post, but the German skied his volley halfway up the Gallowgate.
He was then teed up six yards out by James Maddison, only to completely shank it off his left peg.
Butchering huge chances is what Werner does better than most, and these ones came at a huge cost as Newcastle scored two goals in the blink of an eye 30 minutes in.
The Geordies were happy to sit back and counter, with Gordon looking threatening every time he got it.
And the Scouse winger created the first, beating Destiny Udogie’s weak challenge to latch onto Bruno Guimaraes’ floated ball up field and feed Isak.
The red-hot striker did the rest, cutting inside to leave Van de Ven on his backside before firing home.
If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the exact same thing happened to the hapless Dutch defender just 95 seconds later.
Spurs quickly lost possession from the kick-off and Pedro Porro carelessly hooked it inside straight to Gordon, who left calamitous Van de Ven in a heap again and powered through Vicario.
Tottenham were 5-0 down after just 21 minutes here last term, so this was some improvement.
But the self-destruct button had been struck again, with potentially disastrous consequences for their Champions League hopes.
The defence was all over the shop and they were fortunate not to have been further behind by the break.
Whatever a furious Postecoglou said at the break had no impact as they quickly found themselves dead and buried at 3-0.
And Van de Ven was at fault AGAIN. Supposedly the quickest centre-back in the Prem, Isak left him for dead on halfway to race onto Bruno’s long ball.
Bearing down on goal, Vicario bizarrely stayed rooted to his line, making life so easy for Isak as he had all the time in the world to pick his spot and bury.
Ange rang the changes with a triple sub, but it was too little too late.
His rabble were well beaten and it quickly became a case of whether the Mags could match or even better last year’s hammering in the final half hour.
Fortunately for Spurs, the hosts took their foot off the gas – though there was still time for one more.
Emil Krafth came closest to getting the fourth, firing a volley off the post.
And just as the Toon Army were happy with their lot as they eyed up celebratory pints on the Bigg Market, up popped Fabian Schar to nod home a brilliantly-worked corner.
- Kick-off time: 12:30pm BST
- Live stream: discovery+
- TV channel: TNT Sports 1
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
