Next Sunday, 26th of October 2014, Tottenham will entertain Newcastle at the emblematic White Hart Lane for round nine of the English Premier League, a match during which the home side wants to erase their last weekend’s defeat from their supporters’ minds and collect their second consecutive home win of the season.

After overcoming the surprising Southampton at home earlier this month, the Spurs failed to apply that very same recipe in their visit to the Etihad Ground last weekend. Mauricio Pochettino’s boys didn’t have the most fortunate of matches and succumbed to the talent of Sergio Aguero, who netted in his team’s four goals, two of them from the penalty spot. In fact, Tottenham were in the game until the 68th minute, when the Argentinean wonderkid scored from the 11 metres' mark, but that particular goal and Fazio’s red card precipitated the Spurs’ downfall. The London team played a very decent game and could have even reached the equalizer when Soldado saw Joe Hart stopping his penalty kick on 62nd minute.

At the end of the match, Tottenham’s Argentinean manager, have somewhat raised some doubts on the referee’s work as questioned both the first penalty decision and Fazio’s red card.

Yesterday, the Spurs smashed the Greek side of Asteras Tripolis by 5-1 at White Hart Lane, on a match during which the English displayed all their quality and Erik Lamela scored a superb goal with a well placed rabona from outside the box. This UEFA Europa League win will certainly serve Tottenham to increase their motivation levels before next Sunday’s important clash.

As for Newcastle, they are definitely not having the best of moments so far and the work of Alan Pardew is already being severely criticized, both by the supporters and the media. The Magpies only got their first win of the season last weekend, as they beaten Leicester at St James’ Park by 1-0, thanks to a goal by Gabriel Obertan on the 71st minute. Newcastle have one of the worst defence lines of the competition with 14 goals conceded so far, while their attacking tally is also far from being brilliant. A defeat against the Spurs next Sunday might just open the exit door to Alan Pardew, especially as his team are currently third from bottom.

Despite Newcastle’s win last weekend, Tottenham are firm favourites to win the upcoming match, as they cannot allow any more slipups if they don’t to lose the front trio’s trail so early in the season.

Tottenham

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Newcastle

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Possible Line-ups

Tottenham (4-4-1-1) - Lloris - Vertonghen - Kaboul - Dier - Naughton - Capoue - Mason - Chadli - Eriksen - Lamella - Soldado

Newcastle (4-2-3-1) – Krul - Janmaat - Coloccini - Taylor - Dummett - Colback - Sissoko - Anita - Obertan - Gouffran - Cissé

Prediction

Tottenham 2 Newcastle 0