Newcastle United Vs. Tottenham Hotspur, 2011 Premier League: Penalty Gives Spirs 1-0 Halttime Lead

There had to be a breakthrough in Newcastle vs. Spurs at some point, I suppose, and it's fairly typical of the game that it came from a penalty. Emmanuel Adebayor broke into the Newcastle area but was running away from the goal when a silly challenge by Steven Taylor saw the Togo striker go to ground. Lee Probert thought things over and eventually pointed to the spot, and Rafael van der Vaart stepped up and sent Tim Krul the wrong way to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

It'd be hard to argue that they deserve it, though - both teams seem pretty disinterested in actually attacking and it's a little bit of a shock that a goal's been scored at all. Newcastle are going to have some work to do if they want to preserve their unbeaten record, because they've yet to seriously threaten Brad Freidel's goal. That task might be slightly easier with Spurs captain Ledley King off injured, although the hosts have been blunt enough that you can't seriously see them troubling Sebastian Bassong overmuch either.