A Tuesday night filled with controversy and drama.
Newcastle away is easily one of the worst fixtures in the calendar and after already being knocked out of the cup there, fans expected the worst...
Another Trip up North
Spurs returned to Saint James' Park on a cold winter Tuesday after being dismantled there just over a month ago in the Carabao Cup. Since then, our form had only got worse and fans have witnessed some of our worst performances to date. Newcastle away is never a game to look forward to and after the weekends disastrous display against Fulham, Frank was under pressure and fans were desperate for improvement.
Once again the line-up was peculiar, dropping Van De Ven for the returning Romero and STILL keeping Xavi Simons out of the starting 11. Many fans were also starting to wonder whether Tel was going to get some consistent minutes soon, seeing as he had a brilliant impact coming off the bench against Manchester United, yet Frank decided to start Johnson.
Mathys Tel scores a brilliant equaliser vs United, played 5 minutes since.
— coys comps (@coyscomps) December 2, 2025
Xavi Simons was MOTM against Copenhagen, started 1 match since.
Van de Ven has been arguably our player of the season, benched.
Bentancur has looked way off the pace in recent weeks and he starts?
Don’t…
The first half was another tale of dull football, failing to muster up a shot on target, which we have now done in the first half FOUR LEAGUE GAMES IN A ROW. Our defence seemed shaky from set pieces, which has been a theme for about 4 years now. Fans recognise we can't defend set pieces, we have a fairly tall team that are confident in offensive set pieces. How can this issue be resolved?
The second half on the other hand was very much different from the opening 45 minutes. Bruno Guimarães opened the scoring with an excellent finish, but once again a failure to follow our men. Concerns grew over the lack of substitutions from Frank as they didn't come until the 77th minute. Clearly Frank thought something was working considering how well we were playing? However we eventually broke through and equalised thanks to a cross by Kudus that was cleverly finished by Romero. Kudus has been the obvious light in a very dark season so far and honestly I'm just surprised he's not facing a long term injury, given our luck and how much he seems to be playing
Robbery
The goal that put Newcastle ahead was nothing short of disgraceful as the home side were awarded a penalty for a foul on Dan Burn committed by Bentancur. However, on closer inspection you realise that the Newcastle defender quite literally had Bentancur in a headlock. As our number 30 fell, Burn came down with him and Tom Bramall (with the help of VAR) deemed that to be a penalty. This set the internet off on a frenzy and not just Spurs fans were condemning this decision.
One of the arguments made was that Bentancur was not looking at when the corner was about to be taken, let alone when the 'foul' took place, but I think it would be pretty hard to adjust yourself in this situation...
Of course Gordon slotted the ball away and we were left with a mountain to climb late on.
Karma
That is all that can really be said about Romero's late goal to bring us level. Probably the worst bicycle kick I have ever seen but in the moment it felt like a Puskas nominee. The captain then went out of his way to copy Guimarães' celebrations at the other end of the pitch to prove who is the real sh*thouse. In the end I would say it was a deserved point. Despite the disgraceful penalty decision we would not have deserved to have won given our awful first half performance, which is becoming far too common than it needs to be.
It will be interesting to see how Spurs line-up against Brentford on Saturday. We have a very good record against them and I would like to see us just look threatening for the whole 90 minutes. Frank may not want to hear this, but that might mean starting players such as Xavi and using him to create chances. Just a thought.
On a final note, I just want to mention how worryingly common it is becoming that Sky commentators are consistently mixing up our black players. I first noticed this last season, with Bissouma and Udogie being mixed up quite often, but its become a thing every single game. Last night, Sarr and Kolo were mixed up and it is just unprofessional and concerning from a massive broadcaster like Sky.
Commentators AGAIN mixing up our black players. Sarr and Kolo Muani this time.
— Matt Hayes 🇮🇪 (@matthayesthfc) November 29, 2025
Awful trend this season.
COYS!
