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MOTD: Newcastle United 5-1 Tottenham Hotspur

By on May 15, 2016

What match to watch?  It is the yearly dilemma for neutral Premier League fans as all twenty teams square off in ten simultaneous fixtures on the final day of the season.

And it was a tough choice indeed this last weekend. Arsenal faced Aston Villa, Chelsea squared off against champions Leicester City, Manchester City looked to seal Champions League qualification against Swansea City, and Manchester United matched up against Bournemouth (or as it later transpired, would not); but it very quickly became apparent that Tottenham Hotspur’s visit to Newcastle United was the match of the day.  Newcastle ran riot against a shockingly abject Tottenham side, shipping five goals past Spurs’ torrid defense in what will surely go down as one of the upsets of the season.  Since Newcastle’s relegation was confirmed, they have finally remembered how to play.

Aleksandar Mitrovic created one goal and scored another in the first half, only to get himself sent off on the other side of the break for a nasty challenge on Kyle Walker.

Erik Lamela had already pulled back one goal for Spurs, but for all the visitor’s possession, they were blunt up front.  Gini Wijnaldum restored Newcastle’s lead in the seventy-third minute, converting a cool penalty.  Rolando Aarons and Daryl Janmaat both bagged late goals as well to make the night what Mauricio Pochettino described as the “worst day” of his entire managerial career.

“First of all I would like to apologize to our fans,” said the Argentinian manager. “Our team was terrible for them; to our families, too. I feel ashamed. This wasn’t the team that played all season. It’s my worst day in management, not just in England but Spain, too.

“It was strange – Newcastle are relegated but Rafa [Benitez] felt sorry for me.”

Spurs have fallen apart since their title chase of Leicester City was derailed last month and tonight’s loss let Arsenal nip ahead of Pochettino’s men into second place.  The visitors had expected a tough outing to Newcastle but were completely overwhelmed by the Magpies verve and intensity up front.

Sunderland fans had paid to fly an airplane with a banner reading “Auf Wiedersehen Prem, Tyne to go!” over St James’s Park, but Newcastle were detirmined to spite their rivals from the very beginning.

Newcastle caught Spurs on the break for all five goals and the home side struck early on, as a deep cross fell for Moussa Sissoko at the far post on a breakaway in the eighteenth minute. Sissoko cut the ball back to Mitrovic and Wijnaldum burst into the box to finish Mitrovic’s layoff from fifteen yards out.

Twenty minutes later, Wijnaldum turned creator to set up Mitrovic with a pinpoint cross from the right.  The Dutchman was allowed far too much space down the right to pick out Mitrovic, who ghosted in behind Walker at the far post to rise up for an uncontested header, which looped back across goal and into the top corner.

Lamela found the back of the net from an impossible angle on the other side of the half, but Spurs were lackluster for much of the match and failed to capitalize on their numbers advantage after Mitrovic’s red card.

Newcastle only expanded their lead when Sissoko drew a penalty from Christian Eriksen on a blistering counter-attack and Wijnaldum buried the spot-kick.

Aarons and Janmaat capped off the rout with two late goals within three minutes, catching Tottenham’s sluggish back-line off with the quickest of breakaways.

Long before the match even started, the home crowd had serenaded manager Rafa Benitez with pleas to stay with the club through relegation and the Spanish manager will find it a lot harder to walk away now.

Homepage photo credit: Ardfern (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.