Tottenham v Newcastle United: Key stats and talking points

Big-spending Tottenham host a Newcastle side that boast an excellent recent record against the north Londoners. BBC Sport takes a look at some of the key themes.. After making such a shocking start to the season against Brentford last Saturday, Tottenham's 5-1 victory against Charlton in the League Cup at least provided a much-needed fillip. The manner of Spurs' insipid defeat at the Gtech Community Stadium was as bad as anything seen under Thomas Frank or Igor Tudor last season and was of great worry to boss Roberto de Zerbi and fans alike. Brentford had an xG of 3.87, six big chances and their 26 shots was the most Spurs had faced in 142 Premier League fixtures dating all the way back until October 2022. The Lilywhites have accrued just 79 points from their last 77 Premier League matches since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, a tally that is under half Arsenal's total of 162 across the same period. Just 36 of those points have come at home and surely top of De Zerbi's to-do list this season will be getting the club back to winning ways in front of their own supporters. [BBC] The north Londoners have a poor recent record against the Geordies with only one win in eight league encounters (D1, L6) and no clean sheet in 14. Not only that, but Newcastle's tally of 13 away wins at Spurs in the Premier League is more than they've recorded against any other club. One thing that has been guaranteed in meetings between these sides is goals. It is the most played fixture in Premier League history to never end 0-0, with at least one goal scored in all 62 of their meetings. Fans were thrilled with the cameo by new recruit Savio against Charlton as he notched a goal and an assist on his debut. At £75m (rising to £85m with add ons), he's remarkably only the club's third most expensive signing of this summer alone following their unprecedented splurge in the transfer market. But other than netting nine times for Girona in 2023-24, the Brazilian has never scored more than once in a top-flight season, a figure De Zerbi wants a huge improvement on. "The best wingers score many goals," the Spurs boss says. "I spoke with him: we put the (target) on 10-12 goals because we need 10-12 goals from the wingers." Newcastle looking to build on promising start After such a challenging and downbeat summer Newcastle fans were heartened and enthused by their performance against Liverpool under new boss Matthias Jaissle. They put in a display full of pace and attacking endeavour and were only denied three points due to Dominik Szoboszlai's last-minute penalty. At the forefront was player-of-the-match Yoane Wissa. After scoring just one league goal in an injury disrupted first season with the Geordies he had been written off in many quarters, but was superb operating in a new number 10 role. Another player rejuvenated after suffering a tough debut campaign on Tyneside was Anthony Elanga. Having failed to score a Premier League goal, he finally got off the mark last week and it's surely no coincidence that his side played a style of football that wasn't dissimilar to the one he excelled in at Nottingham Forest. And continuing on a theme, Joe Willock scored in the Premier League for the first time since February 2024 to end a run of 61 games and 40 shots without a top-flight goal. One failing from last season that reared its head again was the surrendering of leads. The Magpies took their tally of points dropped from winning positions since the start of last season to a whopping 29. [BBC]