OPINION
Newcastle United were no doubt feeling on top of the world when they secured a well-fought 2-1 win over Manchester City on Tuesday night.
Goals courtesy of Salomon Rondon and Matt Ritchie secured the famous victory for the Magpies at St James’ Park, which was no doubt a huge blow to City in terms of the race for the Premier League title.
Despite the win on Tuesday, boss Rafa Benitez will still need to make a couple of changes to the team that outplayed the current champions if he wants to repeat the same against Tottenham on Saturday – these are two changes that must be made to the defence and the midfield.
In goal, Martin Dubravka must start as normal due to his consistency this season.
Benitez opted to play a defence that consisted of three centre-backs, and he must definitely stick to this formation against Spurs, as it is clearly a tactic that has worked wonders for him.
Matt Ritchie must keep his spot on the left in the place of the injured Paul Dummett, however, DeAndre Yedlin – who is on £30,000-a-week [Spotrac] – was definitely not at his best on Tuesday, proving to be ineffective for the majority of the evening.
He must be axed against Spurs in order to accommodate Javier Manquillo.
What more can you say about midfielder Sean Longstaff? We’re running out of positive adjectives to describe the 21-year-old after an excellent few weeks, so it is a no-brainer that he should remain in the side on Saturday.
Isaac Hayden should keep his place alongside him after providing the assist to Rondon, as should Ayoze Perez, who has not been too bad in recent times – however, Christian Atsu must make way for Kenedy, who showed glimpses of quality on Tuesday and should be given the chance to show off more of it.
As always, Benitez should plump for Rondon up front, especially after his well-taken goal.
If the Spaniard makes the right decisions regarding his starting XI, then there is no doubt that his team would be able to defy the odds against Spurs on Saturday.
