Total FootballTotal Football
By Sam Wallace
Steve Bruce had spent the final
minutes before kick-off watching
Ben Stokes’s epic Ashes innings
against Australia and was so im-
pressed that he offered the England
all-rounder a chance to expand his
considerable skill set by playing
centre-half for Newcastle United
this season.
Newcastle held on for a 1-0 win
over Tottenham Hotspur through
six minutes of injury time, the first
victory of the Bruce era, although
their embattled manager said the
Headingley Test beforehand had
matched it.
“I don’t know what was more
nervous – the last 10 minutes of the
cricket or this game,” he said. “But
certainly Ben Stokes can play cen-
tre-half for us next week. How won-
derful it was to watch, I have to say.”
Bruce chose not to acknowledge
the away fans at the end, preferring
instead, he said, to win them over
with more victories like this,
clinched by Joelinton’s strike.“I hope they [the fans] give me
time,” Bruce said. “Of course a lot is
written and there’s social media.
But the majority of the people I’ve
bumped into on the street have
held out their hand and said, ‘Steve,
good luck – we hope you do well’.”
He was most pleased with the
way his tactics were implemented
and said the system – five at the
back when they did not have the
ball – had been worked on all week.
“The only thing you can do to
quieten the storm is to find a result.
Nobody gave us a hope.”T
ottenham players and
supporters will have every
reason to feel aggrieved that
the team were not awarded a
penalty yesterday when Jamaal
Lascelles appeared to bring down
Harry Kane in the box.
It was absolutely amazing
referee Mike Dean did not point to
the spot after consultation with
video assistant referee Anthony
Taylor. It was a clear penalty. Kane
has beaten Lascelles for speed and
the Newcastle defender has dived
towards him and extended hisNewcastle expose
patchwork look of
Tottenham squad
Sam Wallace
CHIEF FOOTBALL
WRITER
at the Tottenham
Hotspur Stadium
Beaten by the manager Newcastle
United’s support say they never
wanted, forced again to turn to the
playmaker who would rather leave
and with four points from three
games, this has been a forgettable
August for Mauricio Pochettino.
As his Tottenham team chased
the game, the manager once more
summoned Christian Eriksen from
the bench but this time his Danish
playmaker with an expiring con-
tract was unable to save the day.
The European transfer window
closes a week today with Eriksen’s
future still unclear. The only cer-
tainty is that he can leave for noth-
ing next summer – an outcome to
which chairman Daniel Levy will
be devoutly opposed.
Pochettino refused to blame the
result on the uncertainty around
Eriksen or, for that matter, the
futures of Jan Vertonghen, an un-
used substitute, and Toby Alder-
weireld – both of whom also have a
single year left to run on their
respective deals. “We can’t justify
our performance – we should play
better,” he said. “[We needed] more
desire, more aggression with the
ball. Eighty per cent of possession
is too much in the Premier League
for so few shots on target [three].”
Pochettino had no clear answers
as to whether Eriksen had played
his last game for the club but he did
say once again that the build-up to
the season has been far from ideal,
the most unsettled in his six years at
the club. “Some situations we can-
not fix, that is the circumstances.
After playing the Champions
League final on June 1 we knew that
a situation like this could happen,”
he said. “It’s difficult to handle.
What can we do?
“The problem [with the contracts]
is during the week that maybe can
affect [the players]. Today we should
have won because we were much
better. These type of situations
happen in the Premier League. That
is why you need to create a very
good dynamic and a strong team-
bonding and at the moment that sit-
uation in our group is still far, far
away in that respect.”
There was another dubious video
assistant referee decision that this
time came down on the side of
Newcastle, when Harry Kane was
denied a penalty – first by Mike
Dean, then on review – even though
it appeared Jamaal Lascelles had
fallen on top of him. Pochettino had
declared his love for VAR last week
when it had been the saving of
Spurs at Manchester City and this
time he wisely decided that this
argument was not worth having.
There was much to compare
between the two matches, with
Spurs having all the game as City
did against them. This was a result
that might only have unfolded in
such a manner once in 10 attemptsbut Steve Bruce needed it more
than any manager. Not only that but
the manner of the victory with a
well-organised Newcastle team
defending with five at the back and
going hard on the counter-attack.
Jose Mourinho was in one of the
stadium’s executive boxes to see the
first goal for Newcastle’s record
signing Joelinton, who had a fine all-
round game notwithstanding a cou-
ple of attempts to stop play with
some long lie-downs on the turf
while the action went on around
him. He took the fight to Spurs’
defence on his own and was assisted
for his goal by the excellent Chris-
tian Atsu, an early substitute for the
injured Allan Saint-Maximin.
By the end it was the proverbial
shoot-out and Lascelles was off the
pitch with a calf injury. Bruce evi-
dently appreciates Paul Dummett,
his fellow Geordie and centre-half
who had one of the games of his life.
So too Fabian Schar, and when
required Federico Fernandez came
on for a stint as Newcastle hung on.
The game’s only goal came from a
phenomenal sequence of passing, a
move that began with Matt Ritchie
in the left-back position and worked
its way to the right and then back
again when Atsu finally made the
decisive move. His ball to Joelinton
evaded three defenders and found
the run of Newcastle’s £40 million
signing through the middle. His
first touch was excellent, taking
him into space and giving him the
window of opportunity to sweep
the ball past Hugo Lloris inside the
goalkeeper’s near post.
They might have scored earlier
but Sean Longstaff ’s shot was
pushed over the bar by a brush of
the Frenchman’s fingertips.
By the end the pressure was
immense, and Spurs’ Lucas Moura
somehow missed at the back post
with nine regulation minutes of the
game remaining. Is this the last
they see of Eriksen at Tottenham? If
so, it was a quiet end to it all.Opening goal: Club record signing
Joelinton scores Newcastle’s winnerTottenham Hotspur
0
Newcastle United
Joelinton 27^1
Att: 59,245
Table
KEITH
HACKETT
REFEREE’S
VIEW
KETKETTTTTTTTTT
EE’SEE’S SSSS
Bruce: Stokes can play for us next week Dean’s failure to award a clear
P W D L F A GD Pts
Liverpool 3 3 0 0 9 3 6 9
Man City 3 2 1 0 10 3 7 7
Arsenal 3 2 0 1 4 4 0 6
Leicester 3 1 2 0 3 2 1 5
Man Utd 3 1 1 1 6 3 3 4
Burnley 3 1 1 1 5 3 2 4
Tottenham Hotspur 3 1 1 1 5 4 1 4
Brighton 3 1 1 1 4 3 1 4
Sheff Utd 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4
Crystal Palace 3 1 1 1 2 2 0 4
AFC Bournemouth 3 1 1 1 4 5 -1 4
Everton 3 1 1 1 1 2 -1 4
Chelsea 3 1 1 1 4 7 -3 4
West Ham 3 1 1 1 4 7 -3 4
Wolverhampton 3 0 3 0 2 2 0 3
Aston Villa 3 1 0 2 4 5 -1 3
Norwich 3 1 0 2 6 8 -2 3
Southampton 3 1 0 2 3 5 -2 3
Newcastle 3 1 0 2 2 4 -2 3
Watford 3 0 0 3 1 7 -6 010 *** Monday 26 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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