Newcastle United crashed to a heavy 5-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend.
The Magpies were hoping to get back on track after losses to Everton and Chelsea.
It was perhaps always going to be a tough game, against a side who have been improving under Antonio Conte of late.
Newcastle did actually make a good start to the game, sitting in and containing Spurs’ attacking threat.
Fabian Schar then gave the visitors the lead with a free-kick.
But Ben Davies equalised shortly after and then in the second-half, Spurs really picked Newcastle apart.
Matt Doherty, Heung-min Son, Emerson Royal and Steven Bergwijn all scored to humble Eddie Howe’s side, who just weren’t at the races at all in the second-half.
It was frustrating to watch how easily Newcastle conceded.
Emerson scored his goal on 63 minutes, which effectively meant game over for Newcastle.
There was no coming back from that, and so it was difficult to understand why Howe didn’t just give Dwight Gayle some minutes.
The striker has never started under Howe, and has played just eight minutes under him since his arrival.
Howe did actually take Chris Wood off against Spurs on 70 minutes, but replaced him with Jamaal Lascelles.
It was a change designed to limit the damage. But Spurs still scored after that change.
Gayle is probably frustrated he didn’t feature against Tottenham
Spurs were all over Newcastle in the second-half, and Newcastle just didn’t really have an outlet.
Wood didn’t influence the game, and could have been hooked much sooner than he was.
It’s interesting that £40,000-a-week striker Gayle was again overlooked by Howe.
Surely he could have maybe made a slight difference for Newcastle.
But it seems Howe just doesn’t fancy him, even if Wood isn’t having much of an impact.
It would be a major surprise if he remained at the club beyond the summer given his lack of opportunities.
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