No Bale yet - How Tottenham could line-up against Newcastle

Martin Macdonald

Jose Mourinho complaining about the height of the crossbar midweek overshadowed what was Tottenham's third win in a row.

On the opening day of the Premier League season, Spurs looked desperately fatigued and were eventually defeated 1-0 by Carlo Ancelotti's new-look Everton side.

Since then, they have won three on the bounce, albeit with two of those victories coming against Europa League minnows Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Shkendija. In between those matches, however, they did stick five past Southampton in an impressive 5-2 away victory.

Heung-min Son scored four on that day and followed it up with a Europa League goal midweek. Harry Kane got on the scoresheet, too, and although the pair are being spread thin in the opening fixtures, expect them to start again against Newcastle.

The biggest team news for this one will be an absentee, though, as Gareth Bale is not yet fit enough to make his much anticipated second debut for the club since arriving on loan from Real Madrid last week.

Sergio Reguilon might make the bench, but is trying hard to shake off an ankle sprain. Touch and go on that one.

That will mean that Ben Davies will feature at left-back, with Hugo Lloris, Matt Doherty, Eric Dier, Giovani Lo Celso, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, and Lucas Moura all likely to return to the starting XI after being rested in Skopje.

There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the future of Dele Alli recently after he was recently left out of two Spurs squads, including for the match against Southampton. He started in the Europa League after being reinstated, but expect him to drop to the bench again.

Tottenham predicted XI v Newcastle:

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