Newcastle duo catch the eye in first Premier League game Thomas Tuchel has attended since contract officially started

It didn’t take long for the Thomas Tuchel effect to be felt. By the time six minutes had been played at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium under the – seemingly quite grumpy – eye of the new England head coach, two English players had scored with excellent finishes, Dominic Solanke with a plunging header and Anthony Gordon with a calm angled shot. If there were concerns about Gordon’s positioning for Solanke’s goal, they could be excused in the context of a generally excellent defensive performance from Newcastle.

Nine of the starters were England-qualified, even with James Maddison on the bench. Of most interest to Tuchel, perhaps, would have been a Newcastle pairing with which he is already familiar. It was Tuchel who gave Lewis Hall his full Chelsea debut, starting him on the left of a back three in a 5-1 FA Cup win over Chesterfield in 2022. Later that year, around a month before Tuchel was sacked, Chelsea had a £40m bid for Gordon rejected by Everton. Newcastle’s left flank is the left side Chelsea could have had and the left side England might favour in the future.