Newcastle United

Cristian Romero was the unlikely hero for Spurs as his first two goals of the season got Tottenham a draw in the Premier League away at Newcastle. Both teams came into this game with 18 points from 13 games, sitting 13th and 14th in the league respectively, with Spurs only above Newcastle on goal difference. Newcastle made two changes from the team that beat Everton 1-4 in their first away win of the season. Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Elanga dropped out for Sandro Tonali and Jacob Murphy. Tottenham made four changes from the team that lost 1-2 at home to Fulham. Mickey van de Ven, Joao Palhihna, Archie Gray and Richarlison being replaced by Cristian Romero, Pape Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Brennan Johnson. The first real chance of the game came to Newcastle as Lewis Hall won the ball in the middle of the park, he dribbled well but his shot lacked conviction and trickled wide. As we passed through the first quarter of an hour, Harvey Barnes did well down the left and played a cut back pass to Lewis Miley, but his shot didn’t beat the diving Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario. Newcastle continued to keep possession but were creating little, Hall and Barnes on the left hand side looked increasingly dangerous but lacked the final pass. Eddie Howe’s team kept pushing Spurs defence as this time a Sandro Tonali cross was headed at the back post by Malick Thiaw across goal towards Dan Burn but Kevin Danso got himself in the way to take the sting out the ball and it dropped into Vicario’s arms. A quick double chance for Newcastle again as Joelinton hit a great shot across goal but could only hit the post as it fell to Barnes who’s cross bobbled around the six yard box but again the keeper claims the ball. Finally Spurs got a chance to attack after 37 minutes as Hall was beaten on the wing by Mohammed Kudus and his low cross was met by an audacious flick by Lucas Bergvall who got too much height on the ball as it went over. Newcastle dominated the early minutes of the second half. Barnes made a great direct run but his shot was well saved by Vicario, which rebounded out to Woltemade who’s powerful shot was headed off the line by Danso. Bruno Guimeraes’ corner was half cleared to Jacob Murphy who’s volley into the ground was headed away for another corner, Guimeraes almost scored directly from his second effort as it was punched over by Vicario. A great counter attack from a Spurs corner starts with Newcastle keeper Aaron Ramsdale, throwing it out to Guimaraes who played one of the most ridiculous passes of the season to Jacob Murphy, but his shot was deflected by Pedro Porro as Tottenham scramble it clear. As we entered the last 20 minutes Newcastle finally broke the Spurs defence, substitute Anthony Gordon ran at pace past Porro, his cross was laid off by Woltemade into the path of Guimaraes who side footed a shot past Vicario and into the net. Newcastle almost doubled their lead as Gordon again played a good pass that was miss kicked by Randal Kolo Muani and it fell to Miley but his shot was saved by Vicario who held on to the ball at the second attempt. Out of nowhere Spurs drew level. Kudus got the ball as Hall stood off him, his outside of the foot cross was met by Romero who was still up from a previous corner in front of Burn and it slipped a header past Ramsdale for his first goal of the season. After a VAR check for a penalty after Bentancur had a scuffle in the area with Burn, he was penalised for a holding offence and it was given, Gordon took the penalty and sent the keeper the wrong way to put Newcastle ahead with just four minutes left. Deep into the nine minutes of added time, Spurs pushed for an equaliser as substitutes Wilson Odobert cross was met by Tel but neither Richarlison or Xavi Simons could force it home. Unbelievably, Tottenham drew level once more as a recycled corner fell to Romero again who could have won a penalty after he was brought down managed to get back up and overhead kicked the ball past Ramsdale to almost definitely steal a point they did not deserve. The game ends 2-2, a game that Newcastle thoroughly dominated for large spells but their issues of holding on to leads in games comes back to bite them again. Newcastle UtdAaron Ramsdale, Tino Livramento, Dan Burn, Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley (Fabian Schar 90+3), Sandro Tonali (Bruno Guimaraes 46’), Joelinton, Jacob Murphy (Anthony Elanga 66’), Harvey Barnes (Anthony Gordon 66’), Nick Woltemade Bruno Guimeraes (70’)Anthony Gordon (86’) TottenhamGuglielmo Vicario, Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie, Lucas Bergvall (Xavi Simons 77’), Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr (Archie Gray 88’), Brennan Johnson (Mathys Tel 77’), Mohammed Kudus (Wilson Odobert 88’), Randal Kolo Muani (Richarlison 78’) Cristian Romero (78’, 90+5’)