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Alex Keble explains why Spurs against Newcastle will be played in bursts, with the hosts looking good to triumph at the start of a pivotal run…

The Premier League is in an unusually competitive state for this stage of the season, and so as the final international break ends it is perhaps controversial to say that Tottenham Hotspur have more on the line than anyone else. Everton might argue theirs is a more pressing concern, but nobody else faces the long-term status hit that may befall Spurs if they fail to land a top-four spot in six weeks.

Doing so would mean three consecutive seasons without Champions League revenue, knocking them firmly down into the second tier of big clubs – and with no obvious route back. The danger with sacking Mauricio Pochettino was that Daniel Levy didn’t realise how little actually separated Spurs from the other middle-class Premier League clubs. He didn’t seem to appreciate how much Pochettino had over-achieved.

Being able to hire people like Jose Mourinho and now Antonio Conte shows there is a certain cachet to being Spurs manager – but that will not last much longer without a return to the Champions League. Harry Kane will again be considering an exit this summer, and with Conte always teetering on the edge it is no exaggeration to say that Tottenham’s final nine matches of the season could be era