Matthias Jaissle’s first Premier League victory arrived in a 10-minute burst on a ground where Newcastle United had been made to work for everything. Anthony Elanga swept in the opener on 62 minutes and Yoane Wissa acrobatically converted from a deep corner 10 minutes later as the visitors won 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, leaving the German unbeaten in his opening month on Tyneside.
Newcastle move up to third. Tottenham, two games into Roberto De Zerbi’s first full season and a summer that cost them £380m, remain bottom of the table without a point or a goal.
The first half offered Spurs little reward for a clear improvement on the 3-0 defeat at Brentford a week earlier. Lukas Hornicek was the reason: the Newcastle goalkeeper repelled everything Tottenham generated before the interval, and once the second half turned, the hosts did not register a shot on target between the 37th and 87th minutes.
Jaissle gets his reward
Newcastle appointed Jaissle on 5 August following Eddie Howe’s departure, paying Al Ahli £9.5m in compensation to install the 38-year-old on a four-year deal. His start has been steady rather than spectacular — a 2-2 draw with Liverpool on the opening weekend, a 3-2 EFL Cup win at West Brom in midweek — but the win in north London was the first that carried his fingerprints all over it.
The opening goal came from the club’s most expensive summer addition. Nico Gonzalez, the £52m midfielder making his debut, spread the ball wide to Amar Dedic, whose sharp header found Elanga unmarked inside the box. The finish was routine; the construction was not, and it validated a recruitment call that had drawn scrutiny.
Elanga’s goal made him the first Newcastle player to score in the club’s opening two Premier League fixtures since Alan Shearer in 2003-04. Wissa’s second, hooked in after Tottenham failed to deal with a deep corner, capped a performance that has already convinced the Congo forward of the change in the dugout — he has described Jaissle as Newcastle’s best signing of the window.
That is a pointed claim from a squad that lost Sandro Tonali to Tottenham for £100m this summer. Newcastle banked the money, reinvested in Gonzalez, and have so far looked the more coherent of the two sides.
Tottenham’s spending problem
De Zerbi’s position is more complicated. Spurs have now finished 17th in each of the past two seasons, surviving last term only with a final-day win over Everton, and this is the first time since 1974-75 that they have lost their opening two league fixtures without scoring. The £380m outlay — Omar Marmoush at £60m from Manchester City, Savinho for up to £85m, Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke — was supposed to end that pattern, not decorate it.
Five of the eight summer signings started against Newcastle. Savinho was not among them, ruled out late with a muscular problem. De Zerbi’s own diagnosis has been consistent since pre-season: “You can’t buy the mentality in the transfer market.”
He was measured afterwards, disputing the margin rather than the outcome. “Until the first goal we conceded I think we played better than Newcastle,” he said. “Today was an unfair result.” He added: “There is no panic. I know where we are going and what the plan is. I’m sorry for the fans for the result.”
The dressing room is not entirely settled behind him. Richarlison, Kevin Danso and Pape Matar Sarr have all formally asked to leave. Jamie Redknapp questioned captain Micky van de Ven’s display; Jamie Carragher put it more bluntly, saying Tottenham’s start “couldn’t have gone any worse.”
The road ahead
The numbers that will define both seasons are already visible:
- Newcastle: seven points from a possible nine across all competitions under Jaissle, unbeaten, third in the Premier League
- Tottenham: no points, no goals, five conceded, bottom of the table
- Spurs have lost 21 home league games in three seasons — joint-most in the division with Wolves
Jaissle’s next test is whether a team that has drawn with Liverpool and won at Tottenham can sustain that level against sides who sit deeper. Newcastle’s fixture list softens before it hardens again, and the German has yet to face a genuine setback in England.
Tottenham travel to Nottingham Forest on 5 September needing something to interrupt the narrative. De Zerbi has bought time through the international break, but the questions arriving at Spurs are no longer about transfer fees. They are about whether the most expensive squad the club has ever assembled knows how to win a football match.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
709 articles published
