Mauricio Pochettino will demand his Tottenham Hotspur side forget about Erik Lamela’s stunning Europa League goal and attempt to revive their Premier League campaign when Newcastle United visit White Hart Lane on Sunday.
Lamela’s ‘rabona’ strike was quickly installed as a strong favourite to be goal of the season — but Pochettino showed no emotion as the ball hit the back of the net and indeed appeared more concerned by Spurs’ defensive frailties as they secured a comfortable 5-1 win over Asteras Tripoli.
A hat-trick for young striker Harry Kane added to the feel-good factor at the north London club but Pochettino knows the upbeat mood created by Thursday’s result will disappear if they don’t beat strugglers Newcastle.
Spurs have won just one of their last six Premier League games, in a run stretching back to August, and their failure to build on a positive start to the season has left them in ninth position going into the latest round of matches.
Newcastle, who’ve won just once in the English top-flight this term, albeit last time out against Leicester are languishing in the bottom three but Tottenham captain Younes Kaboul warned his side nothing could be taken for granted against Alan Pardew’s men.
“You have to take all the games at 100 percent and you always need to have a winning mentality,” central defender Kaboul said.
“Newcastle are coming here having just got their heads above water with an important win last weekend and now they will feel confident ahead of facing us, but we have to win and take the three points.”
– Game management –
Tottenham centre-back Federico Fazio will be missing after being sent off in last weekend?s 4-1 defeat by Manchester City.
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris also collected a red card when he was dismissed against Asteras, prompting Pochettino to criticise his side’s failure to close out the game without late drama and develop the good habits that will prove crucial at other stages in the campaign.
Lloris’s suspension will be restricted to European competition but manager Pochettino said: “At 5-0, we need to manage the game better and not give the possibility to the opponent to arrive one against one with our goalkeeper. For that, I’m not satisfied.”
Nabil Bentaleb and Kyle Naughton will be missing from the Spurs squad because of ankle injuries while Kyle Walker has yet to recover from a pelvic problem.
Newcastle had lost on four successive visits to White Hart Lane before last season’s victory, a win inspired by a superb performance from their Dutch keeper Tim Krul.
But this weekend Newcastle manager Pardew must contend with several injury issues as he looks to guide the Magpies to back-to-back wins for the first time in almost eight months.
Papiss Cisse has joined the casualty list after failing to train all week due to a knee problem not believed to be linked with the broken kneecap suffered earlier this year by the Senegal forward.
“We’re sweating a little bit on a few of them,” Pardew said. “We’ve not got what you’d call a crisis, but there’s one or two we’re waiting for including Emmanuel Riviere, is he going to be available? Then there’s Papiss and Cheick Tiote.
“I’m not going to be clear on any of them until tomorrow (Saturday).”
Defender Mike Williamson is also a doubt, and Rolando Aarons, the England youth midfielder, remains sidelined with a hamstring injury while Dutch international Siem de Jong and Italian full-back Davide Santon are longer-term absentees.
However, Ryan Taylor’s return to the squad for the first time since late 2012, after the former Wigan utility man battled back from two career-threatening knee injuries, has provided a much-needed boost to Newcastle’s bid to climb out of the relegation zone.
“It’s an inspirational story and it’s such a pleasure to put Ryan’s name down on the travelling party.” Pardew said.
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