Tottenham needed to win this game and did so in a manner that suggests the battle for fourth place, or better, is nowhere near cut and dried. They enter the Champions League places, at least until Arsenal visit Crystal Palace on Monday night, and left the pitch smacking of a team that is discovering momentum at the right time. When Fabian Schär gave Newcastle, who looked compact and competent until half‑time, the lead there was no suggestion Spurs would subsequently blow them away; Antonio Conte’s players were irresistible in the second period, though, and made a mockery of early concerns about the team’s shape.
Sergio Reguilón’s injury had meant Matt Doherty would be required to cut inside from left wing-back while Emerson Royal, who has struggled to attack effectively for most of the season, was recalled to the right. The wide threat Conte prizes seemed some way off but it turned out the naysayers knew nothing: Doherty gave Tottenham the lead with a deftly angled header after running infield and later teed up Royal, who had made his own enterprising incursion, for the fourth. When the previously goalless Brazilian is on target it is probably your day, and Conte’s characteristically extravagant celebrations gave truth to the occasion’s importance.
Conte had just finished returning the crowd’s acclaim when the substitute Steven Bergwijn, running on to a deft pass from his fellow replacement Lucas Moura, crowned the afternoon late on. By the end this arena was bouncing and it was a far cry from the opening 45 minutes, when Spurs had looked stodgy and short of players who could create attacking angles.
Newcastle had set up neither to defend in depth nor flood forward, but instead picked their moments to probe. They had come close when Cristian Romero got across to block from Joe Willock before, in the 39th minute, Son Heung-min made a careless challenge on the same opponent just outside the box. Schär took one step up to the ball, whipped it around the wall and into the corner via the hand of Hugo Lloris, who appeared to see it late and might have done better. The goal survived a VAR check for a spurious suggestion of handball by Chris Wood in the wall, and Newcastle deserved their lead by this point.
They squandered it within four minutes. Perhaps Son was on a mission after his part in the opener: he won a corner after a 50-yard sprint up the left and then, after his first centre had been returned to him by Eric Dier, swung a second attempt across. Ben Davies was on hand to glance a smart header across Martin Dubravka and, from mediocrity, the game had suddenly produced two goals.
Spurs had not been at all sharp in attack, barely creating a chance of note before the floodgates opened, but within nine minutes of re-emerging from the dressing room they had effectively won the game with two scintillating goals. They initially took control via a marvellous piece of skill from Harry Kane, who showed strength to draw away from Newcastle’s central defenders before pulling out to the right, initially at what seemed a meander, and weighing up a deep cross. Allan Saint-Maximin was back too late to close him down and his delivery was a dream: it just evaded Son, who dabbed out a leg, before bouncing for Doherty to showcase his attacking instincts and nod an awkward opportunity beyond Dubravka.
“The manager wants us to defend at the back post and be at the back post at the other end,” Doherty said afterwards. A player who was out in the cold for much of the season had kept both parts of the bargain.
It was an excellent goal but Spurs, looking slick now, soon topped it. A passing move from the back stepped up a gear when Dejan Kulusevski played a give and go with Kane, who floated the ball into his run down the right flank. The Swede’s cross was perfect and soon became the fifth assist of his north London career: Son, controlling it right-footed before finishing with his left, converted it consummately. Conte leapt into a mass embrace with his staff; it seemed a crucial strike and the football that wrought it had been superb.
Given the manner in which Spurs had started, the surprise was not inconsiderable. It went up several notches when Emerson found himself on the six-yard line when Doherty checked cleverly inside and crossed. Emerson lunged in and made just enough contact to squeeze inside the post.
Wing-back to wing-back; it was Conte’s kind of goal and, as he eulogised at some length afterwards, this had turned into exactly the kind of performance of which he had initially feared this team incapable.
Newcastle were now long out of the contest, a fact underscored when Howe brought on the centre‑back Jamaal Lascelles to replace Wood. This was their heaviest defeat of the season and their third on the bounce, although all of them have been away from home. They will not go down but Howe’s paymasters would presumably frown at too many more repeats of a chaotic second‑half showing.
Son missed a clear chance to make it five, running through but shooting wide, but Bergwijn made no mistake two minutes after replacing Emerson.
Conte could walk on the pitch at the end to hail his players and, later, would describe them as “a team with an idea of football”. They are starting to look like one with genuine notions of what Champions League participation might look like.
