Tottenham skipper Cristian Romero was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Casemiro at the weekend, meaning he is suspended. With Kevin Danso also out, Micky Van De Ven is likely to start alongside Radu Dragusin, who has featured sporadically this season. Thomas Frank is going to have to select a makeshift defensive line against Newcastle on Tuesday night, which is not a good sign. 

However, Spurs have usually come good in the final third. Excluding that weekend game against Man United, which was impacted by the red card, Spurs found the back of the net in their eight matches before that across all competitions. This selection landed in five of those games, and exactly two goals were scored in the others, which fell short. 

Over 2.5 goals has also landed in each of the last ten head-to-head matches when these sides have met in the Premier League. 

Thomas Bramall was in charge of the most recent head-to-head encounter, and he awarded just three cards - all of which were given to Tottenham.

Bramall tends to be quite lenient with his bookings, and he is averaging just 3.6 yellows per game. Anthony Taylor is the designated referee for this midweek clash, and he is averaging 3.9 cards per game, making this appointment more lucrative to back the overs. 

Tottenham have really struggled to exert control on their games this season, and because of that, they are averaging 2.38 yellow cards per game. That number rises to 2.72 when playing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where this selection has landed in 11 of their 12 Premier League games in total.

The only game it failed to land was against Burnley back in August, when Spurs cruised to a 3-0 win.

Dominic Solanke was the one who turned home Simons’ cross against Man City, before he then scored a spectacular scorpion kick to equalise just 17 minutes later. Solanke has returned to fitness just at the right time, with Richarlison out injured, and the Englishman has really hit the ground running. 

He has scored four goals in his last five appearances, landing this selection in three out of four starts since his reintroduction. Considering Solanke only made his first start of the season against Borussia Dortmund a couple of weeks ago, his level of sharpness is impressive, and he will hope to keep this form up. 

It seems like an ideal matchup for him to do so, as well. Newcastle have struggled on their travels this season, and have won just one of their last eight matches across all competitions. In that time, they have only kept one clean sheet, which was against basement-dwellers Wolves. 

After making the move from RB Leipzig to Tottenham over the summer, it took some time for Xavi Simons to find his feet in the English top flight, but the Dutchman finally seems to have settled in. He was an impressive performer against Man City in Spurs’ last home match, providing an assist to start the comeback. Simons was demanding the ball towards the end of the game and came close to scoring the winning goal. 

The 22-year-old has emerged as a mainstay in the starting eleven in recent weeks and has played the full 90 in each of Tottenham’s last eight matches since he returned from suspension. In that time, he has drawn a total of 23 fouls and has landed this selection in all eight games. 

He made a brief appearance off the bench in the reverse fixture against Newcastle, but looks set for a much bigger role on Tuesday night.