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Tottenham meet Newcastle at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as both teams seek to bounce back from midweek defeats.
Victory will see Tottenham stay fifth and move to within seven points of league leaders – Liverpool, whilst Newcastle can leapfrog Spurs into fifth with a win.
Team News
Son Heung-min is a doubt for Tottenham after he suffered a back injury during their midweek loss at home to West Ham.
Ryan Sessegnon, Mickey van de Ven (both hamstring), Manor Solomon (knee), Ivan Perisic (ACL), Eric Dier (groin), Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison and Alfie Whiteman (all ankle) remain ruled out.
Newcastle could be without Jamaal Lascelles after he suffered a dead leg during their midweek defeat at Everton.
Dan Burn, Elliott Anderson (both back), Matt Targett, Callum Wilson (both hamstring), Sven Botman (knee), Nick Pope, Jacob Murphy (both shoulder), Sandro Tonali (suspension), Joe Willock (Achilles), Harvey Barnes (foot) Sean Longstaff (ankle) and Javier Manquillo (groin) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Tottenham host Newcastle at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a 4:30pm GMT kick-off on Sunday 10 December, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Tottenham are unbeaten in five of their last seven meetings against Newcastle (W3, D2, L2).
- Newcastle have claimed seven points from their last six visits to Tottenham (W2, D1, L3).
- Eddie Howe’s Magpies are seeking to claim three consecutive wins over Spurs for the first time since a five-match streak between April 2006 – March 2008.
- Two of Tottenham’s four headed league goals this season have been scored by Cristian Romero.
- Bruno Guimaras has made more tackles than any other Newcastle player coming into this matchweek, with 29 tackles in 14 league appearances.
Prediction
Having produced a dominant yet wasteful performance in their defeat to West Ham where the Hammers’ end product was simply more clinical, Tottenham now need to just find more finishing quality but if Son is unfit then I can see them struggling slightly up front.
Their attacking quality though shouldn’t be hindered too much because Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson will certainly provide pace and creativity on the flanks but it is the central striker position which could be their weak point with Richarlison out of form.
Newcastle meanwhile simply ran out of steam against Everton in a fatigue-impacted performance with little end product, although Amazon did them dirty with a Thursday night slot rather than Wednesday because I can see that fatigue continuing into this game.
Eddie Howe therefore needs to rotate his squad here ahead of a crunch Champions League decider on Wednesday, even if it means giving youngsters like Lucas De Bolle, Amadou Diallo and Michael Ndiweni a runout in place of some tired senior players.
Although it is said that you can’t win with kids well the same philosophy surely applies to a fatigued squad, so this is a game where Newcastle might be wise to rest some of their best players and play the long game in terms of the season as a whole.
Newcastle’s away record also has been poor and with Spurs currently in a losing rut, this doesn’t feel like a potential cracker but I do expect this to be close with the hosts having the edge.
Prediction: Tottenham 1-0 Newcastle
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