Garth Crooks’ spectacular Newcastle United U-turn after Tottenham Hotspur demolition

The BBC Sport pundit claimed Newcastle ‘are not ready for the Champions League’ following the 3-0 defeat against Aston Villa. But The Magpies responded to the shock defeat in stunning fashion with a 6-1 win over Champions League qualification rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

Following the result, Crooks believes Newcastle are ‘going places’ and are looking likely to secure a top four finish.

Eddie Howe’s side raced into a 5-0 lead inside the opening 21 minutes, becoming the second quickest team to score five goals in a Premier League match behind Manchester City. Jacob Murphy opened the scoring after 61 seconds before Joelinton quickly made it 2-0 and Murphy grabbed another to make it 3-0 inside nine minutes.

A quickfire Alexander Isak brace effectively confirmed the thrashing with less than a quarter of the game played. Harry Kane pulled a goal back for Spurs in the second half before Callum Wilson completed the scoring from the bench to secure Newcastle’s biggest Premier League win since 2011.

But Crooks only made space for one Newcastle player in his team of the week with Joelinton getting the nod on this occasion.

"This was a horror show by Tottenham,” Crooks said. “Five goals down away from home against the team you are competing with for a Champions League place? Chairman Daniel Levy should insist the players reimburse travelling fans who no doubt spent a considerable amount of money to watch their team capitulate.

"Hugo Lloris' contribution to Tottenham's first half beggared belief and it was a relief not to see him return for the second half. Newcastle on the other hand looked as though they had completely recovered from their mauling at Villa Park and gone some way to securing a top-four finish.

"My man of the match and arguably Newcastle's player of the season is Joelinton. When he arrived at Newcastle he looked anything but a top-four player. He is now ever present in a Newcastle side that's going places.”

Crooks’ team of the week: Jordan Pickford (Everton); Timothy Castagne (Leicester), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Victor Lindelof (Manchester United); Declan Rice (West Ham), Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton), Harry Wilson (Fulham); Joelinton (Newcastle), Diogo Jota (Liverpool), Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)