James Maddison has admitted that Newcastle United took Tottenham Hotspur by ‘surprise’ at St James’ Park yesterday.
Eddie Howe’s side picked up an emphatic 4-0 win over Tottenham to move up to 6th in the Premier League.
In what was a significant dent in Spurs’ top-four hopes, the defeat leaves them 5th ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to Arsenal on Sunday.
Tottenham enjoyed a fairly bright start to the game as Timo Werner had two opportunities to hand Ange Postecoglou’s side the lead.
But it was one-way traffic thereafter and two quickfire goals from Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon handed the Magpies a comfortable lead heading into the break.
Spurs went on to concede another two in the second half, despite dominating the ball for large periods of the game.
Of course, the north Londoners suffered a heavy 6-1 defeat at St James’ Park last term and would have been fully aware of the task at hand heading into yesterday’s clash.
Yet, James Maddison has admitted that Newcastle seemed to surprise Spurs on Saturday.
What Maddison said about Newcastle
While speaking to Spurs Play, Maddison was asked about Newcastle’s high-pressing which ultimately led to Tottenham struggling to play out from the back.
“Anyone who’s played here before knows what type of game you’re in for when you come here,” he said. “Yet, it still kind of took us by surprise I guess.
“Just sloppy errors, needed more courage I think to be a bit braver with the ball and play forward and not take the safe option of an easy pass backwards because they just invite pressure.
“At 0-0 I felt like there was actually space there for us to capitalise on. You get a feeling on a game sometimes as a player and there was space between the lines and in wide areas. But we didn’t capitalise on it and we kind of played a little bit too safe to not play that line-breaking pass enough times and it come to cost us.”
Newcastle vs Tottenham stats
Maddison has been vocal about Tottenham’s desire to secure Champions League football for next season.
But Spurs will have to improve dramatically on what was a lacklustre display in the north East yesterday.
According to WhoScored, Newcastle managed 18 shots at their goal while only having 27 per cent of the ball.
Tottenham managed 11 shots on the day but their lack of threat in the final third was reflected by the corner count. Indeed, Newcastle had 16 corners to Spurs’ three on the day, with the Magpies netting through Fabian Schar from one.
Howe’s men also created 3.14 xG in comparison to Tottenham’s 0.85.
With fixtures against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool up next, Postecoglou has plenty of work to do over the next couple of weeks.
As for Newcastle, Howe will be delighted with his side’s performance, particularly with a host of key players sidelined.
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