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Howe on Magpies' "confidence and belief" ahead of Spurs trip
Head coach Eddie Howe believes Newcastle United are heading to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday with more "confidence and belief" as they bid to banish the memory of last season's humbling defeat in North London.
The Magpies were beaten 5-1 on their last visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in April, despite having taken the lead through Fabian Schär's free kick.
But Howe's men head to the capital this weekend in fine form following Wednesday night's 1-0 win over Everton at St. James' Park - a result which keeps United in sixth place in the Premier League, just two points shy of a top four spot.
Newcastle boss Howe believes his team has grown in spirit and conviction since their last trip to Spurs, which was one of a number of topics up for discussion at his pre-match media briefing on Friday morning:
On that game against Antonio Conte's side back in April...
"Thinking back to that game, it was a really tough game for us and a tough second half. I thought in the first half we did really well. I think we took a lot from the game, and I remember it very well - I remember a lot of the lessons that we took and I think from every defeat, especially a big one like that, if you don't take things into the future that you can learn from, it's a wasted experience.
"As much as it was painful at the time, I actually think it helped us for the run-in and for the remaining games we had, and played its part in helping us stay in the division.
"I don't think the team's characteristics are necessarily that different (now). I think maybe I'd love to think there's a bit more confidence and belief within us, that we can go to any ground in the Premier League and give a good account of ourselves.
"We respect Tottenham and we know how good they are, (how good) their manager is and squad is, but we've just come off the back of a very good result at Old Trafford and we go there with the same belief inside of us that we can get another positive result."
On Joelinton's fitness, after the midfielder was withdrawn at half time in the win over Everton in midweek, and Allan Saint-Maximin's continued rehabilitation from a hamstring problem...
"He had a knock to the side of his knee. It was quite an unusual one - we thought it was a knock, and hoped he could run it off.
"Joe is the type of lad who is very, very mentally strong and has played with a lot of different things in my time here. When he said that he had to come off at half time, we knew that potentially there was an issue there. We hope that it's not serious, but at this moment in time it's still slightly unclear."
"I haven't seen too much of Maxi the last few days when we've been preparing for games, but I think he's making good progress. He's very focussed on his recovery - he's working very hard with the physios here to get his injury right."
On December's warm-weather training camp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia...
"I think first and foremost when you look back to last year, our decision to go there and the benefit it had for our team, the results on our return were really good. I think there are a lot of positive connotations from that.
"The weather was very good, the facilities were first class, and we were able to spend some quality time together to bond the group and really focus our energies on our battle to stay in the decision. The team spirit off the back of that trip was very, very good, and obviously we had that positive experience to fall back on. I think it's helped our decision this time."
On the contribution of midfielder Sean Longstaff, who has started the last four games...
"I'm really pleased with Sean. When we came in, I was immediately hit with a lovely lad, a really good character - Newcastle through and through, he loves the club, wanted the club to do really well. And obviously he had his own individual aims and ambitions - to nail down a starting spot in the team and really contribute.
"I've loved working with him and I really enjoy our relationship. For me, he's improved a lot of aspects of his game and he's worked hard on different bits in and our of possession. I really love him athletically - he gets around the pitch brilliantly, up and down, and you can see the ground that he covers every week - incredible distances. But he's also got a creative eye around the box and he's been integral to some really good play on that right-hand side of the pitch."
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