Match Report: Tottenham Hotspur 5 Newcastle United 0 (From The Northern Echo)

Newcastle's frailties underlined by more capital punishment

8:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in Newcastle United Match Reports By Scott Wilson

TAXING? Not exactly. Unless you're Alan Pardew.

While Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp enjoyed a relaxing end to a week that saw him cleared of charges of tax evasion and widely promoted as the nation's preferred successor to deposed England manager Fabio Capello, Pardew was left with plenty to ponder as Newcastle crashed to their heaviest defeat in more than three years.

For the second time in three Premier League away games, the Magpies conceded five, with four of the goals again coming in the space of little more than 30 manic minutes. One humiliation in London can be considered unfortunate. Two in a month suggests something more deep rooted is involved.

"It has to be a concern for us," admitted Pardew, who saw his side slip a place to sixth after Arsenal claimed a last-minute winner at Sunderland. "That's twice now, and we're not going to ignore the fact that we've been involved in two heavy defeats in a fairly short space of time. But I didn't really think the problems we had here resembled what happened in the Fulham game."

Perhaps not. Tottenham are certainly superior opponents to their London rivals, and for much of this encounter, particularly in a thoroughly one-sided first half, Redknapp's title contenders played with a verve and creativity that would have been difficult for anyone to contain.

Yet the parallels remain difficult to ignore. Again, Newcastle's defence was repeatedly ripped apart by attackers boasting pace and movement and midfielders willing to break from a deep-lying position to support their forwards.

At Craven Cottage, Mike Williamson and Davide Santon had been the weak links. Here, Fabricio Coloccini and Danny Simpson were equally as culpable.

For all that he has performed superbly at times this season, Coloccini remains susceptible to opponents with rapid bursts of pace. Up against an inspired Emmanuel Adebayor, he was pulled here, there and everywhere in an opening quarter that left Newcastle reeling. Simpson also struggled, losing Benoit Assou-Ekotto for Spurs' first goal and allowing Louis Saha to ghost past him as the hosts doubled their lead inside the opening six minutes.

At Fulham, there was always the hope that defensive reinforcements would arrive before the end of the transfer window. The fact that they didn't means this is it unless Steven Taylor recovers much quicker than expected. Hardly ideal.

Perhaps Newcastle's defence would not be as stretched if the club's first-choice midfield was available, and having disguised the absence of Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye reasonably effectively against Blackburn and Aston Villa, this was the game when the veneer was shattered.

For all that James Perch is a willing enough worker, he cannot be considered adequate competition for a central unit of Scott Parker and Luka Modric, arguably the best balanced midfield set-up in the country.

Questions must also be asked of Gabriel Obertan, who was rightly substituted at half-time after his first-half efforts to keep tabs on the mercurial Gareth Bale proved an unmitigated disaster.

"It'll be good to get Tiote and Cabaye back for the next game," said Pardew. "We've missed them, but I thought we also missed Ryan Taylor as well. He's been a big player for us recently and I'm sure he would have helped had he been in the midfield.

"If you'd had those three players available, I'm sure it would have shored us up a bit. We're a little bit limited in that midfield and that made it tough for our back four."

The carnage started as early as the fourth minute, with Adebayor squaring for an unmarked Assou-Ekotto to slot home.

Saha's close-range half-volley doubled Tottenham's advantage, and the Frenchman, who made 11 appearances during a loan spell at St James' Park in 1999, scored his second goal of the evening shortly after when he drilled home after Adebayor touched off Modric's cross.

"They were two quick goals and we couldn't get ourselves settled," said Pardew. "I thought we had a really bad 15 minutes after that where we were all over the place.

"You'd have to say that Tottenham were irresistible at times, but what we showed is not a true reflection of what we've been about all season."

Things got worse shortly after the half-hour mark, with Niko Kranjcar slotting home from the edge of the area after Tim Krul produced a fine save to deny Adebayor.

Four down inside the opening 35 minutes, the only positive for Newcastle was that the embarrassment did not become more extreme.

Spurs added one more goal, with Adebayor finally claiming the success his superb all-round display merited when he swivelled to fire home Saha's headed knock down, but a five-goal defeat was probably the extent of Newcastle's ambition at half-time.

Their only chance of note saw Brad Friedel deny Demba Ba with 12 minutes left, and while it would be harsh to judge any of Newcastle's attackers on the evidence of a game that saw them almost completely starved of service, Papiss Cisse's lack of impact nevertheless tempered some of the more excessive outpourings that accompanied his debut goal six days earlier.

"We're still on a decent run," said Pardew. "If we beat Wolves ( a week on Saturday) and Arsenal and Chelsea draw, we'll be in a Champions League position so we mustn't get too carried away by this."

Too upbeat? Possibly. But then again it has been a week for positive verdicts.