"It was a little bit different" - Mark Lawrenson makes tight scoreline prediction for Newcastle United vs Tottenham

Pundit Mark Lawrenson has backed Tottenham Hotspur to beat Newcastle United in their third Premier League clash of the season. The two sides will face off at St. James' Park on Sunday, September 1.

St. James' Park has been a tough ground for Spurs in the last two seasons as they lost 6-1 and 4-0 on their last two visits to the ground. However, they have started the 2024-25 season decently. They dominated completely against Leicester City away in their opening game but could only manage a 1-1 draw. They then beat Everton 4-0 at home.

Newcastle, meanwhile, beat Southampton 1-0 at home in their first game despite being down to 10 men for over an hour. They were then fortunate to draw 1-1 against Bournemouth away after the Cherries' late equaliser was controversially ruled out.

Lawrenson pointed this out in his prediction for Paddy Power, writing:

"A decent season for Tottenham would be a finish in the top six. Newcastle have wobbled a bit of late. They went down to 10 men against Southampton and could have easily lost against Bournemouth with that late disallowed goal.

"I’m going to go for Tottenham to win 2-1 and I would fancy Son Heung-min to score. I watched Spurs against Leicester, they should have been 4-0 up at half time."

Lawrenson also wrote about Son Heung-min, who scored a brace against Everton in the last game. He played as a striker with Dominic Solanke and Richarlison unfit and is likely to do so against Newcastle as well. Lawrenson wrote:

"It was a little bit different for Son with the new guy Dominic Solanke through the middle and he kind of disappeared from view in that game. Last week he was back and he scored though. Son likes to play with a certain type of player but whether Solanke is that kind of player remains to be seen.

"Solanke has to prove to the Spurs faithful that he’s good enough for the job. He’s got injured straight away and he’s only ever had one season in the Premier League where he’s scored a decent amount of goals and he’s played a lot of games. It’s a ‘watch this space’ situation."

Spurs and Newcastle also played out a friendly in Australia after the end of last season, where the Magpies won on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

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A look at Tottenham's transfer business this summer

Tottenham were quite active in the summer transfer window, especially in terms of outgoings. They parted ways with Japhet Tanganga, Joe Rodon, Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp, Troy Parrott, Emerson Royal, and Ryan Sessegnon. The likes of Bryan Gil, and Manor Solomon have also gone out on loan.

In terms of incoming players, Tottenham welcomed Lucas Bergvall, who signed for the club in January from Djurgarden but stayed on loan with the Swedish side. They signed Archie Gray from Leeds United for £40 million and Wilson Odobert from Burnley for around £30 million.

Tottenham also signed South Korean youngster Yang Min-hyeok from Gangwon FC and he will join them in January 2025. They also broke their transfer record by signing Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth for over £60 million.

They also managed a deal with Real Betis, where they have a €30 million priority option for Johnny Cardoso if they decide to sign him in the future. If they don't, they have a sell-on clause for him.