Newcastle’s 2-0 win away to Tottenham Hotspur confirmed more than just Matthias Jaissle’s first victory as head coach.
Three weeks after replacing Eddie Howe, this performance and result showed that Jaissle’s side have a clearer and better tactical identity than Spurs under Roberto De Zerbi — who is nearly five months into his tenure.
Newcastle were not box office, but they were organised and effective. Inside a minute they showed their game plan, when No 6 Nico Gonzalez hit a diagonal ball from deep to advancing right-back Amar Dedic. The narrow positioning of winger Anthony Elanga, who occupied Spurs left-back Andy Robertson, created an overload.
Dedic nodded the ball down to Elanga. His hooked pass to the back post led to nothing, but it should have been a warning shot.
The synchronicity of those rotations — the No 6 dropping between the centre-backs and the winger moving inside for the full-back to overlap — was something Spurs could not match.
Pedro Porro, club captain and nominal right-back, struggled at right wing. He completed one cross and had one notable shooting opportunity, when Newcastle defenders crowded him out in the box. On the other flank, Mathys Tel did little to combine with Robertson, who kept offering runs ahead of the ball.
The decisive goal on 62 minutes came from the very pattern that Newcastle worked throughout the first half. Nico, only signed from Manchester City last week, found Dedic, who headed another knockdown to Elanga.
“He used to play in that system with that approach,” Jaissle said of Dedic, whom he coached at Red Bull Salzburg in Austria. “That forward-defending behaviour, (being) brave in possession. We allow him to be offensive.”
Fittingly, Elanga escaped Sandro Tonali as he swivelled and fired in the opener off the post. Tonali, signed by Spurs from Newcastle for £100m in July, encapsulates their issues: a plethora of top-level players who cost big money, but cohesion and identity cannot be bought.
Elanga, having not scored for Newcastle in the Premier League last season following his big move from Nottingham Forest, has two goals in as many matches this term. Give him direct balls, big spaces to run into and a supporting full-back, and nobody matches his speed.
“It’s important that we are versatile, otherwise it would be too easy for our opponents to read what we are doing,” the Newcastle head coach said. Whereas De Zerbi is tactically strict and steadfast in his belief in pattern-based passing, Jaissle is fitting his system to the players.
The performance of the game came from Lewis Hall, a left-back with outstanding technical quality but obvious defensive weak spots, who struggled towards the end of 2025-26 when Newcastle leaked goals. The 4-5-1 mid-block that former coach Howe persisted with often left Hall exposed.
Here, he defended flawlessly against Porro’s forward runs and headed away deep crosses, making 14 defensive contributions. In the dying stages, Hall made a goalline clearance to keep out Dominic Solanke’s backheel from a low cross, ensuring Newcastle kept a first clean sheet since March.
Collectively, Jaissle’s side nailed their out-of-possession plan. He told reporters: “If you are playing against Tottenham, especially with De Zerbi as the coach, you need to be clear. If you go in the high press, you need to be fully committed; you shouldn’t hesitate.
“You need to be aggressive on the man and if you win these duels you can challenge them on their goal. If you lose them or if you’re a little bit in doubt, then you need to (drop deep and) defend your own box. This was the message.”
Newcastle’s 4-4-2 matched up to the 4-box-2 shape that De Zerbi likes, where the No 9 and No 10 drop deeper to attract opposition centre-backs, while the wingers stay high and look for diagonal runs to exploit the space. Goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky only tried to release Porro once in the first half, and Hall read these passes when they increased in frequency after the break.
Jaissle’s point about commitment in the press was shown by academy graduate Lewis Miley aggressively marking Rodrigo Bentancur. This helped to stifle Spurs’ build-up, and it’s why Tonali kept rotating out to the left to receive passes.
Compare Miley’s attentiveness to one sequence midway through the first half, when Matheus Fernandes pushed up so that Spurs could press with a narrow front three. Lukas Hornicek, the Newcastle goalkeeper, spotted Fernandes checking his shoulder, and broke the line with a pass into Miley.
Spurs’ problems are mounting: injuries, new signings to embed, a churned squad and, most worryingly, a lack of resolve. They last won a Premier League game from 1-0 down in November 2024. Since then they have lost 28 matches and drawn eight times after conceding first. Newcastle put the game to bed with two goals in 10 minutes, as Spurs conceded from an in-swinging corner for a second straight game.
De Zerbi’s three wins last season were all by a marginal goal, featuring precious few of those incisive passing moves that brought him success at Brighton & Hove Albion. His seven games at the end of 2025-26 should be viewed as being part of a relegation battle.
But he’s had a pre-season now and, tactically, the early signs are worrying.
Brentford dominated Spurs physically on the opening weekend and pressed them into all sorts of problems. His squad selections have also been curious: academy graduate Mikey Moore and right-back Porro as his right-wing starters; Fernandes and Conor Gallagher at No 10, despite being very different profiles; Richarlison (who may yet leave) and Omar Marmoush both struggling in the back-to-goal role that is needed for these tactics to work.
“Winners celebrate, losers explain, and I’m explaining,” the head coach said post-match. It’s the 21st Premier League home defeat for Spurs since August 2024, the joint-most along with Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were relegated last term.
Newcastle are rebuilding after the departures of Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimaraes and Tonali over the past 12 months, before Howe went too. Spurs, treading water by comparison, are doing little to disprove the idea that consecutive 17th-place finishes were anomalies.