Tottenham's £320m Struggles Against Newcastle's Rebirth
Tottenham’s £320m reboot is already under scrutiny. Two games, two defeats, no goals – and this time they were turned over on their own pitch by a Newcastle side reborn under Matthias Jaissle.
At the heart of it, two players who looked lost last season. Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa. Both transformed. Both ruthless. Both decisive in a 2-0 win that left the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium seething and half-empty by the final whistle.
Spurs spend big, deliver little
Tottenham’s summer outlay was supposed to launch a new era under Roberto De Zerbi. Eight signings, £320m, a bold attacking coach, a fanbase sold a vision of front-foot football and serious progress.
What they saw instead was a familiar story: plenty of the ball, some half-chances, no cutting edge – and a team that, in their manager’s own words, “are not a team yet”.
They even rolled out a new forward. Omar Marmoush was handed his Premier League debut and thought he had a case for a penalty three minutes after the break when he beat Malick Thiaw to the ball and went down under contact. Referee Peter Bankes waved it away. VAR stayed quiet. The home crowd did not.
By then, frustration had already started to simmer. De Zerbi’s other marquee signing, £75m winger Savio, was missing with what the club called “muscle fatigue”. Sandro Tonali, the £100m midfielder lured from Newcastle, endured a grim afternoon as his former supporters revelled in his discomfort and their own revival.
Hornicek stands firm, Spurs waste their moment
Tottenham actually controlled the first half. For 45 minutes, this looked like a game they should have put away.
On 15 minutes, Mathys Tel curled towards the top corner, only for Lucas Hornicek to spring to his left and claw the ball away. Two minutes later, Pedro Porro seemed certain to score from close range before Lewis Hall hurled himself in front of the shot, blocking what looked a tap-in.
The pattern continued. From a 38th-minute Fernandes corner, Jan Paul van Hecke rose well and powered a header on target. Again Hornicek reacted sharply, beating it out and glaring at his defence to wake up.
Spurs had the territory, the shots, the pressure. Newcastle had their goalkeeper and a stubborn streak. It felt like the kind of half where a dominant side has to score. Tottenham didn’t.
And they paid for it.
Elanga strikes, the mood turns
The game flipped on a single, slick move just after the hour.
Nico Gonzalez, making his debut in midfield, finally found space to lift his head and pick a pass. His long diagonal ball forward was nodded down by Amar Dedic into the area, where Elanga took over. One touch to set, a swivel on the turn, and a low drive that kissed the inside of the left post before nestling in the net on 62 minutes.
The away end exploded. The home fans sagged. The pressure that Spurs had built evaporated in an instant.
Elanga, who laboured through last season and only began to hint at his old dynamism with a goal against Liverpool last weekend, suddenly looked like a £100m winger instead of a problem to solve. His movement stretched Tottenham, his confidence grew with every touch.
De Zerbi threw on three substitutes in response, trying to inject urgency and ideas. It never came. The spaces between his lines grew. The distances, as he later admitted, were lost.
Wissa twists the knife
If the first goal stunned Tottenham, the second silenced them.
On 72 minutes, Newcastle won a corner and sent on Nick Woltemade. The substitute made an instant impact, climbing to head the delivery back into the six-yard box. The ball dropped with bodies everywhere.
Wissa, back to goal, didn’t bother to turn. He improvised. One instinctive hook over his head and the ball arced beyond the goalkeeper and into the net.
Newcastle’s players sprinted to the corner. Spurs’ defenders stared at each other. The boos started to bubble up around the stadium.
Wissa, like Elanga, had struggled under Eddie Howe. Under Jaissle, he looks liberated. Aggressive. Sharp. A threat again.
De Zerbi demands patience, Redknapp demands leaders
By full-time, large pockets of home seats were empty. Those who stayed made their feelings plain as the whistle went. The soundtrack was boos.
De Zerbi, though, refused to turn on his players.
“For 60-65 minutes we played better than Newcastle,” he told Sky Sports. “We had a chance to score but we didn’t. After they scored, we lost distances.
“We had more chances and shot more on goal. We are not a team yet. We have to improve a few things.
“Forget the result, but I’m not angry. We are working well. We were unlucky today, especially with the result.”
The numbers – two defeats, no goals – will test that calm.
In the studio, Jamie Redknapp’s assessment cut a little deeper. He pointed to the churn of new faces, the tactical puzzle De Zerbi must solve, the inevitable “teething problems”. But he did not spare the senior core.
“I also look at the senior players and players like Van de Ven didn’t do enough to lead today and certainly with the goals,” he said. “Players who have been there for a long time can do better.”
Tottenham have invested heavily in talent. Redknapp’s message was blunt: they also need leaders.
Jaissle’s Newcastle find their voice
On the other side, Jaissle walked down the touchline with a smile that said plenty.
“It was incredible and I’m really proud,” the Newcastle head coach told Sky Sports. “We are really proud as a club, as a coaching staff to see a team on the pitch delivering the match plan at a high level already, but also seeing players fully committed to what we’re doing.
“This is a good start and a moment to enjoy.”
Enjoy it they did. Their fans, who arrived with low expectations after talk of a difficult window and a season of struggle, left singing about Europe. The chants were laced with humour, but there was a different energy to them now.
As Jamie Carragher put it from the gantry: “In Elanga and Wissa, it’s like two new players!” Jaissle has taken the £110m duo Howe never truly unlocked and turned them into the spearhead of a side playing with freedom and togetherness.
Gonzalez’s debut only added to the optimism. His assist for Elanga’s opener underlined why Newcastle moved for him, and why Jaissle trusts him already.
Two clubs, two directions?
Strip it back and this was only Newcastle’s first league win under their new boss. A single result, in late August, does not define a season.
Yet the contrast was stark.
Newcastle looked like a team who know what they are, even if the details are still being refined. Spurs looked like a collection of expensive parts still waiting to click into place.
De Zerbi insists time will fix that. The Premier League rarely grants much of it.
