If ever you wanted to understand the distinction between “winning the transfer market” and winning an actual football match, then this was the game for you. Tottenham’s first home fixture of the Premier League season began with adulatory focus on all their new players. It ended in decisive defeat by Newcastle as recruit after recruit failed to make their presence pay, while Newcastle’s forgotten forwards made hay. “Tottenham Hotspur, it’s happened again,” sang the Toon Army as if it needed pointing out.
Tottenham should have taken the lead in a first half they had the better of, but they had no response to impressive second-half strikes by Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa. What had looked like green shoots of positivity withered to nothing. For a Newcastle team themselves a work in progress under Matthias Jaissle, this was a heartening victory achieved with many of their own additions to come in.
