Newcastle’s win over Arsenal means Spurs only need a draw for Champions League finish

WOW! Tottenham Hotspur just caught a HUGE break in their quest for Champions League football this season. Arsenal, still reeling from Spurs’ 3-0 North London Derby drubbing, went to St. James’ Park to play Newcastle in Toon’s last home match of the season, and laid an egg, falling 2-0 thanks to a Ben White own goal and a late strike from Bruno Guimaraes.

This means that Spurs went from not controlling their own destiny to now only needing a draw on the road against already-relegated Norwich City to clinch fourth place and a place in the Champions League next season.

Massive doesn’t begin to describe this. The Arsenal win was the biggest factor here, but also this past weekend’s gritty win over Burnley as well as that hard-fought (and one could say unlucky) draw at Anfield a week ago.

Yes, it’s okay to feel a little gross about rooting for a Newcastle side that was recently purchased by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — [lawyer whispers in ear] on the advice of my council I am recommended to say that it is a Saudi PIF and it is not directly connected to the KSA government — and a club that will likely be spending gobs of money for top players in the world in a couple years’ time. It’s also okay to FULLY CELEBRATE THIS. We can hold these two things in tension, and it’s fine.

What it means is that Spurs just need at minimum a draw on the road against a team that has no real reason to play anymore and is already relegated in order to clinch a spot ahead of their fiercest and biggest rivals and a spot in the lucrative top four.

What’s the worst that could happen?