Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur Betting Preview – Who Will Start Season In Style?

Sunday 13th August. 1:30PM. Sky Sports

The Premier League is back! And the opening weekend serves up a number of fascinating battles, with Tottenham’s trip to Newcastle standing out as one of the best.

Can the returning Toon Army seal the perfect start to life back in the top flight? Will Spurs kickstart another title challenge in style? Whatever happens, it’s set to be 90 minutes of fantastic entertainment from the greatest league in the world.

It’s good to be back!

Toon Army Back In The Premier League

After a one year absence down in the Championship, Newcastle United are back where they belong. However, Rafa Benitez’s men shouldn’t expect an easy return as they prepare to face one of the best sides in the division.

The Magpies did register a 5-1 win against Tottenham in their final game before relegation, but things have changed a lot since then. Newcastle do boast some decent attacking quality in the form of Dwight Gayle, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Ayoze Perez. Those stars will be eager to prove their worth here.

Newcastle’s problems look likely to come at the back thanks to a lack of experience at the top. Still, Deandre Yedlin and a few of his teammates have shown capabilities in limited time in the Premier League. The American will be particularly eager to put in a good display given that he never got a fair crack of the whip at Tottenham.

In terms of quality, Newcastle are second best. With the atmosphere of a packed St James’ Park behind them, though, the Toon Army may just spring a surprise.

Can Spurs March On To The Title?

After going close in each of the last two seasons, Mauricio Pochettino’s men will be desperate to set out their stool from the off in 2017-18. While away games are never easy, a trip to one of the newly promoted sides could be just what they need. Not least because they’ll want to make amends from final day loss in 2015-16.

Spurs have had a turbulent pre-season, though, thanks to the temporary move to Wembley and publicised issues regarding dissatisfaction amongst some of the players. Those issues do pose a potential disruption but there’s no doubt that this squad still has the quality needed to have another great season, starting with a big result here.

Harry Kane has scored goals for fun over the past couple of years and is being touted as the man to overtake a Newcastle legend as the league’s all-time leading scorer. Supported by the attacking qualities of Dele, Heung-Min Son, and Christian Eriksen, Kane and his team should create chances against a weak looking Newcastle backline. Even with the question marks over the full back areas, due to Danny Rose’s comments and Kieran Trippier’s injury, a relatively solid backline will be confident too.

Anything can happen on the opening weekend, which should make this an exciting battle on Tyneside. Nevertheless, if they perform to their potential, it should be three points in the bag for Tottenham.

Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur

Even with home advantage on their side, the newly promoted Magpies are 9/2 underdogs at Unibet in this one. Tottenham, meanwhile, can be backed at 7/10 while the draw is priced 3/1.

It’s hard to see Newcastle repeating the result of their last Premier League fixture 15 months ago, but they can be quietly optimistic against an away side that has had problems ahead of what is set to be a strange season.

Spurs are still likely to score, however, which is why we’re backing a both teams to score winner.

While Tottenham have had issues, there’s no doubt that their two main men will be raring to go. Kane and Dele both enjoyed exceptional seasons last term, and you’d be happy to back either man scoring on the opening weekend of 2017-18.

Given that his odds are longer, we’re taking Dele at 9/5.