Toon’s storm warning for Big Six
Howe steers upstart Newcastle into top four with win at Spurs and it’s a lightning bolt to the league
SHORTLY after Newcastle’s second went in, fork lightning split the night sky and loud claps of thunder echoed around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
At that moment, upstart Newcastle were fourth, where they remained at the end of the game, and plainly the gods of Big Six entitlement — those Super League breakaway clubs, who seem to think it is their divine right to share football’s riches and prizes — were not happy. It was more pathetic defending than pathetic fallacy, but you get the idea.
This isn’t meant to happen. Not so soon, anyway. Newcastle’s win yanked Chelsea out of the top four places and dumped them in fifth, and left Eddie Howe and his players peering down at Manchester United and Liverpool, too.
They are two points behind Tottenham and while Arsenal and Manchester City will take some catching and have a game in hand, this was a win of great maturity and potential. Newcastle are a genuine threat to the cabal, make no mistake of that.
No wonder Jurgen Klopp bracketed them in with Manchester City last week, no wonder Premier League rivals hardly welcomed the ownership change with open arms. Six into four does not go, and seven produces ever more awkward calculations. It is exciting for the neutral, even more so for fans who have endured years of mediocrity at best — and they celebrated at the end as if they were on the pinnacle, not several ledges below — but the speed of Newcastle’s rise is terrifying for those who have spent so many years trying to stitch up football for themselves. They won’t find this thrilling at all.
Credit must go to Howe for the transformation of this group. He has done so much more than just throw money at it. Yes, of course, Newcastle have spent well and as big as the financial fair play rules will allow.
We can all see the impact of players such as Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman, Bruno Guimaraes and Dan Burn. Yet the outstanding Fabian Schar was a Rafa Benitez signing, as was Miguel Almiron, one of the most in-form players in the Premier League right now.
Callum Wilson and Joe Willock joined under Steve Bruce. Joelinton was signed prior to Bruce’s arrival but has been transformed by Howe. As for Sean Longstaff, he made his debut for the club in August 2018, after loan spells at Kilmarnock and Blackpool. Howe has not just moulded a team of stars. In fact, record signing Alexander Isak and star turn Allan Saint-Maximin were absent here.
So, in the circumstances, what a result. Tottenham had won their last 10 home games in all competitions and 11 would have represented their best run since 2006 when Martin Jol was in charge. It felt like ancient history, and Newcastle consigned that current run to the bin.
They withstood some periods of storm — and not just from the skies — but picked Tottenham off in an impressive spell at the end of the first-half. Wilson scored, his third consecutive league goal for Newcastle against Tottenham, having never scored against them for Bournemouth — and Almiron is in the form of his life. Newcastle are defensively organised and pose an increasing threat going forward. Howe (below) has done an outstanding job. They are on a far steeper trajectory than was first imagined, and it hasn’t been achieved simply by throwing money at the problem.
If they do that in January, however, who knows where this might end? They have lost just one game all season as it is, and that was at Liverpool in the final minute. Money helps, of course. Yet this is more about Howe blending what he had with what the club could afford within the rules, and doing so intelligently. Can they stay there? Why not?
Of course, every streak needs a sprinkling of good fortune and Newcastle got theirs in the build-up to the first goal. Managers often complain that referees lack consistency. Howe, by contrast, must be absolutely delighted that Jarred Gillett is thus flawed. It was Gillett who
‘I had every right to go for the ball. Sometimes keepers get too much love (from referees). But he chested it and dived into me really, and I’ve carried on and put it in.’ — Callum Wilson
as VAR at Stamford Bridge in September, played an important part in getting a West ham goal disallowed, for what looked like nothing more than an innocent collision involving Chelsea goalkeeper edouard Mendy.
Yesterday, Gillett looked at a collision between Newcastle striker Wilson and goalkeeper hugo Lloris leading to Newcastle’s opening goal and decided: nothing doing. Fortunately, he was more constructively advised by his VAR David Coote, too.
And it was a good goal. Against the run of play at the time, true, but Wilson deserved it for his astute reading of a long ball by Schar from defence, and for playing on when he and Lloris came together. The Tottenham goalkeeper saw danger and sprinted out, got the ball but not by much and then clashed with Wilson.
had the Newcastle man even put his arms out to protect himself he might have been judged to have pushed Lloris. But they ran into each other, chest to chest. Lloris fell backwards, perhaps seeking Gillett’s sympathy, Wilson kept his footing, got first to the ball and, seeing the keeper in a vulnerable position, chipped him and anyone else between his foot and the net.
Tottenham reacted furiously, impotently. Gillett gave it and Coote rightly did not advise otherwise. Rodrigo Bentancur was booked for protesting but the goal stood. Soon, Lloris would err again, and Tottenham would go two goals down as the elements closed in.
Just nine minutes later, the Frenchman tried to find Ryan Sessegnon with a chip to the flank. It was poorly directed, the header instead won by Longstaff, finding Almiron. he set off on a run, shrugged off Sessegnon as he tried to recover, then glided past the equally ineffectual Clement Lenglet on his route to goal.
It was a tight angle but Lloris was his opponent. One player full of confidence, the other full of regret. Almiron stuck it past him perfectly, his fifth goal in as many games.
Strangely, Tottenham had started brightly after their dismal display at Manchester United in midweek. Antonio Conte made five changes from that match — some plainly punishments, some through injury, others perhaps with one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League game against Sporting Lisbon — but their strength remains the forward partnership, harry Kane and Son heung-min and in the 54th minute, they got through.
Son took a corner from the left which Lenglet won with a flicked header towards the near post. At the far post, Kane stooped low to nod it across the line getting ahead of Trippier. VAR checked to see whether Davinson Sanchez, possibly in an offside position, also got an assisting touch but it would have required Snicko to judge that and football isn’t using heat or sound sensitive technology.
So Coote went the common sense route again, and the goal stood. More importantly, though, so did Newcastle. For some, it is a more unnerving sight than any electrical storm.