Tottenham 4-1 Newcastle: Spurs defeat the struggling Magpies to snap their losing streak thanks to two goals from Richarlison.

Spurs’ five-game losing streak came to an end at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as they defeated top-four rivals Newcastle 4-1 thanks to two goals from Richarlison.

Richarlison, making his first start since October, scored his first goal from close range after Heung-Min Son’s cross, and he added another goal in the second half when Pedro Porro’s pass looped.

Spurs had taken the lead earlier thanks to a powerful left-wing strike from defender Destiny Udogie. Son later added their fourth goal from the penalty spot after being pulled down by Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

Despite Joelinton’s late consolation goal, Tottenham never appeared to be in danger of losing this time, even though they had lost their previous five games. The injury-plagued visitors suffered their second crushing loss in three days after losing 3-0 to Everton.

With the victory, Spurs move three points clear of sixth-place Manchester United and remain three points outside the top four. Newcastle, meanwhile, is currently in seventh place, seven points behind fourth place.

How Spurs overpowered Newcastle

Postecoglou responded to Tottenham’s dismal performance by adding an extra attacker to his starting lineup. Richarlison, who just made a comeback from a groin injury, now joins Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, and Son in the forward line. It turned out to be a wise choice.

Ben Davies’s crucial toe on Anthony Gordon’s low cross gave the hosts an early break and kept Alexander Isak from scoring a clear opportunity, but Newcastle were soon trapped back and unable to handle Spurs’ strikers.

After a corner, Miguel Almiron headed a header by Cristian Romero off the line. Then, moments later, Richarlison came dangerously close to missing a whipped cross from Son, who was causing Kieran Trippier a lot of trouble on Spurs’ left.

For the opening goal of the game, Son outran Trippier once more. He intercepted Udogie’s ball and created a fantastic cross for the left-back, who scored his first goal for the team from close range after slipping into the box unnoticed.

A few minutes later, with Spurs players lining up behind him, Johnson’s low cross was horribly misdirected by Pape Matar Sarr, giving Spurs the opportunity to double their lead.

After that, Guglielmo Vicario made an easy stop to deny Almiron an equalizer when Johnson gave away the ball in his own half, but the hosts quickly continued their attack.

For the second goal, Trippier was again at fault as Son easily outmuscled him to cut the ball back for Richarlison. Richarlison then had a chance to add a third goal before halftime but unfortunately missed a point-blank header from a cross from Kulusevski.

He didn’t have to wait long for Spurs’ third goal, though, as he beat Dubravka who wasn’t in the right place in the 60th minute after controlling Porro’s ball over the top.

Spurs were still in control, but they were lucky not to be down to 10 men as Romero sent Newcastle substitute Callum Wilson flying with a careless stomp; he was only given a booking for the incident.

Son subsequently scored his fourth goal for Spurs after beating the Newcastle offside trap and drawing a foul from Dubravka. This was Son’s 10th Premier League goal of the season.

Joelinton scored a consolation goal for Newcastle after Wilson’s pass was mishandled by the defence, but Spurs had more opportunities to take the lead when Johnson struck the woodwork and Oliver Skipp forced a save from Dubravka.

However, Postecoglou’s team celebrated a decisive return to winning ways, and Richarlison’s particularly cathartic return to form, which did not dampen the Spurs party.

Ange: We value Richarlison greatly.

Prior to this game, Richarlison had only scored one Premier League goal this season. Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou was full of praise for him.

“Richy was excellent and very significant. We needed that extra energy today, and his and Pape’s [Matar Sarr] return provided us just that.

“Richy was important to us at the start of the year too, but he wasn’t fully fit. He was kind of restricted in his movements. At times, we had to play him at wide to get him through games.

“Since he has come back, he feels a lot better physically. It wasn’t just his goals, his general work-rate, his energy and physicality were very good for us.”

He continued, “It’s just because Richy is healthy now.” regarding the decision to utilize Richarlison as a striker rather than out wide. His finest position, in my opinion, is through the middle.

“Also, looking at the last few weeks, our best chances have gone to the wide players. Sonny is still our best finisher and I thought getting him back out on the left would give us some more avenues to score goals. He set the tone early on and the lads fed off that.”

Of Spurs’ injury situation easing up, he added: “We are trying to build something here and part of that is, through the tough periods, to not allow the lads too much of an attitude in terms of excuses.

“But the reality is – and I was probably too hard on them in retrospect – we got decimated after the Chelsea game. It’s no coincidence our form has improved since we got players back.

“It sounds like excuses but that’s the reality of the Premier League. You don’t need too much analysis to see why, in the last few weeks, we haven’t been as conclusive in our results as earlier in the season.”

Howe: We need to keep going even though we’re exhausted.

Eddie Howe, the manager of Newcastle, said on Sky Sports: “I thought Tottenham played very well.” Throughout the game, we had our moments, particularly in the first part of the second half when we were playing well until they scored.

“We weren’t at our best physically today and you could see that. The lads were giving everything but with not enough resources to give more.

“I can’t say it’s all down to fatigue… we’ve got another game on Wednesday.

“This is what we wanted this season. The Champions League is a very special tournament but with it comes more games. We hoped to be able to have the squad to cope with that but with the injuries we’ve had, I think we’ve had it worse than any other team that I can remember.

“These same group of players have gone through five games and it is difficult. But we do have some light at the end of the tunnel with Callum and Sean coming back. Massive players for us and they both did well when they came on.

“We have to take the pain and come out fighting again.”

Opta stats: Newcastle’s problems

For the first time since November 2017, Newcastle has dropped back-to-back Premier League games by three goals or more. As of right now, they have dropped six more league games this season than they did throughout the whole 2022–2023 campaign.

Having gone undefeated in their prior eight top-flight trips to the city (W4 D4), Newcastle suffered their first Premier League loss in London since April 2022 (also against Tottenham).

Only Brighton (32) currently has a longer run of such games in the Premier League than Tottenham (28), who have scored in each of their last 28 games. In fact, the only other times in league history that Spurs have had a longer scoring streak (both runs of 32) are between April-December 1949 and February-November 1962.

WHATS NEXT?

On December 15, live on Sky Sports, Tottenham plays Friday Night Football against Nottingham Forest. Start at 8:00 p.m.

In order to move up to second place in Group F of the Champions League, Newcastle must defeat AC Milan at St James’ Park on Wednesday, December 13, and hope that already-qualified Dortmund can at least draw at home against Paris Saint-Germain. Start at 8:00 p.m.

On Saturday, December 16, Eddie Howe’s team will play Fulham in the Premier League. Start time is 3 p.m.