Jamie O’Hara believes that only two Spurs players would make Newcastle United’s starting XI right now.
Newcastle defeated Antonio Conte’s side 2-1 last week, followed by a 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa, extending their unbeaten run – their last defeat coming against Liverpool back in August.
The weekend’s victory took them up to 4th place replacing Chelsea, and they could have easily been 3rd too had it not been for Spurs’ last-minute winner against Bournemouth.
Howe’s men are shining brightly and drawing attention from the rest of the Premier League. And, in comparison to Spurs, pundit O’Hara has made a big claim about Newcastle.
The former Tottenham midfielder joined host Laura Woods and ex-Rangers striker Ally McCoist on TalkSPORT to discuss Newcastle’s recent upturn in fortunes. He said:
“We keep saying is it too early for them to get in the top four? They’re a problem”.
“I mean look at Liverpool. They’re absolutely having one.
“I look at the side – Joelinton, Callum Wilson, Saint-Maximin, Bruno Guimaraes. They’ve got a better team than Tottenham.
“If you look at the XI, apart from Kane and Son, I’d rather have Newcastle’s team.”
It is hard to argue with O’Hara at this point. In the goal, on current form, it is a no-brainer. Nick Pope will keep his place with him being much more impressive compared to the error-prone and frequently unreliable Hugo Lloris.
Perhaps one of the few players that would start for Newcastle is Rodrigo Bentancur, the former Juventus midfielder, who has had an extremely strong start to the season.
This is besides the obvious two names that O’Hara has mentioned as well, i.e, Harry Kane and Son. While Newcastle’s attack has recently improved, those two would almost certainly start for almost every club in the league including the Toon.
It’s insane to think that Newcastle’s team is looking better than Tottenham’s. The North London club finished in the top four last season, while the Magpies were fighting relegation for the majority of the season. Many of those players are now thought to be better as superior to Conte’s squad, which demonstrates how well Eddie Howe has done with the full support of the new owners!
I’m not even sure Kane and Son would start for them on their current form.Unlike us they have spent wisely and Eddie Howe has got them playing well and who would have thought he would turn round the fortunes of Almiron and Joelinton.All credit to him.
People criticise the owners and their money,but I think they are very aware of sticking to the spending guidelines because of that.At this point I see them finishing above us at the end of the season.
It’s an awful thing when one agrees with O’Hara. It must be bleeding obvious to everyone at this point.