Newcastle United head into the international break in good form.
Results wise, things could not really have gone much better for Newcastle this season. They’ve dropped two points away at Bournemouth but, aside from that, have won their three other games.
The fact Eddie Howe’s side have not yet clicked into gear is also promising. Surely, their relatively indifferent performances cannot last forever, so the hope will be that things start to become more convincing.
For now, however, it’s nice to see Newcastle doing the business on the pitch. The transfer window may have been fairly miserable but, so far at least, it does not appear to be having too much of an impact on the players.
Few would doubt Tottenham had the better of it on Sunday at St James’ Park but what is most important is that Newcastle found a way to win.
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou was particularly impressed with Nick Pope.
Ange Postecoglou says Newcastle had an “outstanding” player against Tottenham
Speaking to Tottenham’s official website about the game after seeing his team squander a lot of chances, the Spurs head coach namechecked Pope as a particular stand out.
“I still think even outside of that [missing a striker] we just had some really good opportunities, a little bit more composure,” he said.
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“Fair play to Pope, I thought he had an outstanding game.”
Nick Pope isn’t perfect – but he’s so important for Newcastle
Pope may not be the most adept goalkeeper with his feet and is guilty of the occasional blunder, such as his parrying of the ball into Brennan Johnson’s path that led to Dan Burn putting through his own net on Sunday.
Still, surely few would doubt the fact that Pope is an upgrade on the goalkeepers Howe had to use in his injury-enforced absence last season, Loris Karius and Martin Dubravka.