Antonio Conte has admitted that it was 'not easy' to play against Newcastle United despite his Spurs side hammering the Magpies 5-1.
For all the possession and territory Spurs enjoyed in the opening half-hour, Martin Dubravka was largely untested before Newcastle landed a sucker punch in the 39th minute. Hugo Lloris will have felt he should have done better with Fabian Schar's free-kick, but the Spurs' goalkeeper was unable to keep the Switzerland international effort out as the visitors took a shock lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
However, Newcastle were not in front for long and Ben Davies equalised just four minutes later before Matt Doherty put Spurs ahead shortly after the break. There was plenty of time left in the game, but that second goal was the cue for Newcastle players to push forward in search of an equaliser as the visitors veered away from Howe's original game plan.
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Spurs duly exploited huge gaps across the pitch and made the most of some sloppy defending as Son Heung-min, Emerson Royal and substitute Steven Bergwijn scored three goals in less than half an hour. It was a comfortable victory for Spurs, but Conte did not necessarily foresee such a scoreline at full-time after both sides went into half-time level.
"Don't forget that to play against Newcastle is not easy," he told reporters. "Their plan was very clear: to defend very deep and then to exploit players like [Allan] Saint-Maximin and [Ryan] Fraser for the counter-attack.
"We were 1-0 down and this is another positive thing that I've seen because, despite this, I've seen my team focused and with calm, patience and resilience. We drew 1-1 and, then, in the second half, it was good to score the second goal because Newcastle was forced to play and, also, to concede a bit of space."
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