"To Dare Is To Do" - Up Next: It's Spurs

A few weeks ago, the title of this preview would most likely have been "Spurs v Spursier". Tottenham's results this season are more confusing than their club motto 'To Dare Is To Do'. They've enjoyed an aggregate scoreline of 7-0 across two trips to Manchester and embarrassed Villa 4-1 after narrowly missing out to the Brummies for Champions League last year...

The Robin Hood meme of 'stealing points from the rich and gifting them to the poor' has been out in full force on social media so far; because as good as Spurs have been against the teams around them; they've been appalling against the teams they should be beating.

Sound familiar? It did... until Newcastle decided to buck their ideas up as Christmas came around.

For a while, it seemed like anything Spurs could do, we could do better. Spurs romped to a 4-0 away win at the Champions before gift-wrapping maiden victories of the season for Crystal Palace and Ipswich. Not to be undone, Newcastle enjoyed back to back wins against high-fliers Arsenal and Forest before pathetically surrendering to a West Ham side apparently one loss away from sacking their manager. We then more than held our own against a Liverpool side running away with the league before losing to Brentford. Utterly head-scratching.

However, since that particularly low ebb at Brentford on December 7th... this Newcastle team have reminded themselves of their top 4 ambitions. And with the relative poor form of big guns such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Spurs this season, there seems to be no better opportunity than now to get back in the big time. Newcastle have won four on the trot; and perhaps most pleasingly of all... they've gotten the job done convincingly against the teams they should be beating for arguably the first time all season. A victory on Saturday lunchtime would put us level on points with Chelsea for at least a few hours. That feat alone seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.

That now leaves us with a bit of a dilemma; predicting the outcome of this Spurs game. Seeing as how we're now fifth and on a hot-streak of form, surely that makes us prime victims of this 'spursy' Spurs side that steals from the rich and gifts to the poor? It's a paradox. Surely, Spurs and Newcastle can't both be 'spursy' on Saturday? It is the early kick-off to be fair. A 7-7 draw?

We jest, but the signs point to a goal-fest. There has never been a 0-0 draw between Newcastle and Spurs in the Premier League era; and recent goal-fests v Spurs for Eddie Howe have included 4-1 and 5-1 defeats and 6-1 and 4-0 victories. Newcastle are also coming into this game having scored 18 league goals across just six games in December, whilst Spurs shipped 15 league goals in the same calendar month, including 10 at home to Chelsea and Liverpool. They also conceded three at home to a terrible Manchester United in the League cup.

Newcastle have defensive worries... but not as many as Spurs

To add fuel to the goal-fest fire; both teams have selection headaches in defence. While Howe will celebrate the inclusion of Sven Botman for the first time since March; this is surely not the fixture to rush him into from the start. Fabian Schar is suspended for picking up a fifth yellow card against Manchester United; so Lloyd Kelly has a chance to shake off his West Ham nightmare due to the ongoing absence of utility man Emil Krafth. It remains to be seen who is given the nod at right-back as Kieran Trippier limped off at Old Trafford and Tina Livramento has been struggling with illness over the festive period.

For Spurs, it's even bleaker. Micky van de Ven will miss home and away games against Newcastle this season with injury (sadly no more memes of the Dutchman rolling on the floor for now then), while first-choice goalkeeper (Guglielmo Vicario) and left-backs (Ben Davies and Destiny Udogie) are ruled out. Christian Romero is also a doubt, although his recent performances against Newcastle make this absence a tad disappointing. Nevertheless, Isak, Gordon and Murphy must be licking their lips.

If I was a betting man, I'd go for a Newcastle victory and over 4.5 goals scored in the game. The absences in defence and potency in attack make this an almost dead-cert for a 3-2, 4-2, 5-1 kind of game. Which way? We're not quite sure. The form of both teams has been unpredictable at best, and downright chaotic at worst.

The only guarantee is that the neutrals will be sitting back with their popcorn. Hopefully us Geordies can do the same if we start the game like we did at Old Trafford.