Premier League: Newcastle United 2 Tottenham 1

18 August 2012 20:53

Newcastle got their Premier League campaign off to a winning start, defeating Tottenham 2-1 thanks to a late penalty from Hatem Ben Arfa.

Alan Pardew's side took the lead in the second half after an adroit strike from Demba Ba, who curled in an effort across the penalty box and into the far corner of the goal.

Spurs were level with less than 15 minutes to play thanks to a Jermain Defoe tap-in, but lost the lead four minutes later thanks to Ben Arfa's spot kick in the 81st minute, after the Frenchman was felled by Aaron Lennon in the area.

Newcastle came close to opening the scoring in the first half when Ba turned and shot from 25 yards, with Senegal team-mate Cisse flicking the ball just past Bread Fiedel's post.

Spurs failed to test the hosts' defence regularly in the first half but managed a shot on goal through Swansea recruit Gylfi Sigurdsson, who curled a free-kick towards the bottom corner, but Tim Krul was up to the task.

Defoe looked menacing throughout the encounter and almost opened his account in the first half when he struck the foot of the post after cutting inside Steven Taylor and directing the ball past Krul from close range.

Lennon was causing Davide Santon quite a few problems at left-back, as he switched inside and out before cutting down the line and standing up a cross for Gareth Bale, whose header back across goal rebounded off the bar.

Bale went close after the interval on a Spurs counter, but took his final touch slightly too far and could not quite get around the ball to force a cross in to Defoe.

But in the 55th minute, it was the hosts that took the lead. A cross from Danny Simpson was poorly cleared by Kyle Walker, with Ba on hand to bring the ball down and curl a sublime effort into the far corner past Friedel's despairing dive.

Defoe was the next man to come close to scoring, latching onto a good through ball to aim a low strike at goal, but Krul got down well to stop it.

The England international eventually broke through for a deserved goal in the 76th minute, pouncing in a goalmouth scramble to knock the ball home after some good work from Lennon out wide.

Spurs were level for less than four minutes, however, as Ben Arfa produced some more quality to get past Rafael Van der Vaart and Lennon and enticing a foul from the latter.

The winger duly stepped up to take the spot kick, and dispatched it coolly into the bottom corner to seal an opening day win for Newcastle.