Tottenham winger Brennan Johnson admits defeat at Newcastle was ‘difficult’ to take
Tottenham Hotspur were beaten for the first time on Sunday in the new Premier League season, falling 2-1 to Newcastle United.
Spurs have endured tough times at St James’ Park in the last two visits, losing heavily to Eddie Howe’s side. While they lost again, the performance of the north London side for extremely good for large parts of the game and merited at least a point.
Frustration and disappointment were apparent on the faces of the players as well as the head coach at full-time. It is the second away game in a row where Tottenham created plenty of chances but were guilty of not taking those.
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The same emotion poured out of winger Brennan Johnson, who admitted defeat at Newcastle was a bitter pill to swallow. After the 2-1 defeat, Johnson said to the club’s official channel:
“Yeah, I think we did enough that’s what caused most frustrations. It was a good performance in terms of dominating the game but at the end of the day we’ve come away with nothing. It doesn’t get much tougher to come and do that here.
“It was very disappointing because of the football we played and the chances we created. I mean it is easy to say we deserved to score, but I think we got to be more clinical and avoid bad decision-making.”
The Wales international was introduced at halftime for Pape Sarr—a bold move from Ange Postecoglou after his side were a 1-0 down and the tactic worked. Johnson made an instant impact on the game, bringing his energy, pace and directness to trouble the Newcastle backline.
His entry in the fray allowed Wilson Odobert to shift on the left flank, Dejan Kulusevski to take the No.10 role and Son Heung-min to lead the attack. With James Maddison operating in a deeper role alongside Yves Bissouma, Tottenham started dominating the second half by creating chances in the final third.
Johnson’s burst of acceleration and movement made life difficult for Newcastle left-back Lloyd Kelly, leading to him being substituted. The 23-year-old was involved in Spurs’ equaliser as his shot across the six-yard box was booted by Dan Burn into his own net.
However, given the amount of pressure Spurs put on Newcastle and the control they enjoyed in the middle of the park in the second half, frustrations will be there with the lack of clinical edge. We did miss Dominic Solanke and Richarlison in the box—both were ruled out for injury.
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Next up is the big North London derby after the international break, and if Big Ange’s side are to beat Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, we have to play very well and make our moments count.
