In-form Newcastle United will face a Tottenham side struggling for confidence as they get their 2025 under way in North London on Saturday lunchtime - but with manager Ange Postecoglou adamant they are close to getting things right.
While United signed off 2024 with a strong 2-0 victory at Manchester United to extend their winning run to five games, Spurs were left frustrated by a 2-2 home draw with Wolves. The result left Tottenham in the bottom half of the table at the halfway stage, the same number of points away from the relegation places as they are the top four.
The pressure is beginning to build on Postecoglou, although a crippling injury crisis has given the Australian a valid reason as to why they are failing to match last season's success. And as they look to welcome Newcastle to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he sounded a defiant note on their future ambitions.
“It’s still fairly tight," he said. "I just feel that at some point we’ll get a relatively healthy squad and when we do that, we’ll be able to perform at a high level consistently. We’ve already shown this year we can beat anyone.
"There’s a chance there you can go on a run, but at the moment that’s secondary to the first bit. I can see how hard they’re trying and if we were at our sharpest, we would have got that third goal and maybe a fourth (against Wolves).
“I mean we were inches away at times from getting the goal we needed and I think we’re just lacking a little bit of that dynamic movement that we need. A lot of these guys, they’re finding some form of energy to still be out there trying, but you know we’re certainly not as sharp as we can be.”
Spurs will take full advantage of a rare free midweek to give the players some rest and relaxation, something which is not often possible durning a season with European football - and it's something Postecoglou feels will make a difference.
“It was always planned," he said of the break. "We kind of knew this is the first week where we don’t have a midweek game, so I think the whole group probably needs a couple of days just to get away from everything and recover."