Newcastle United are not a team used to losing this season.
They have tasted defeat on only four occasions in the Premier League, as well as once in each of the domestic cup competitions.
Indeed, aside from the shock loss at Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup, Newcastle have been in most of the games too.
Other than the defeat to Aston Villa last weekend.
That was incredibly uncharacteristic of Eddie Howe’s team and now means Newcastle have little more margin for error in the Champions League race.
Heading into Sunday’s huge clash with Tottenham, they need to win to get their momentum back on track.
Newcastle not dwelling on the loss to Aston Villa
While losing so convincingly to Villa was hardly ideal preparation, Howe has insisted he has seen little hangover from it in training.
Still, speaking to iNews, he confirmed watching the performance back had him in a “terrible mood”.
Watching the video back, however, gave him some positives to focus on and helped form the basis of the plan heading into Sunday’s mouth-watering clash.
“I was still in a terrible mood,” he said.
“But I tried to hide it.
“I’ve seen no hangover from the Villa game, I’ve seen no negative emotional reaction.”
A win on Sunday is the perfect response
If Newcastle manage to put that behind them and beat Spurs, it would be a major statement of intent.
While the visitors have hardly convinced away from home all season and aren’t exactly enjoying the best of seasons, they remain a dangerous team and boast experience when it comes to run-ins of this nature.
To respond with another victory against them would surely end Spurs’ chances of getting into the top four and underline Newcastle’s status as genuine challengers.
It’s an absolutely huge game for the club.
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