Newcastle United were on the receiving end of a giant killing once again in the FA Cup today, as they exited the competition in an early round yet again- this time losing 3-0 to mid-table League One side Oxford United.The Magpies look to have improved under Rafael Benitez, and seem set to secure an immediate return to the Premier League, but they have still failed to overcome their woes in the FA Cup- and this statistic sums it all up.

Newcastle United have now gone seven whole years in the FA Cup without keeping a clean-sheet, with this seeing being the first time in a while that the Magpies even made it past the third-round stage. In the end though, it’s another forgettable cup run.

The Magpies have their sights set on bigger things this season but they’ll certainly need to improve, as they fight Brighton for the Championship title.

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Liverpool and Spurs have had quite contrasting seasons to date. While the Reds started very strongly, the Lilywhites were not at their best until the latter weeks of 2016, and at that time Liverpool tailed off, notching just the one victory in the calendar year of 2017 so far.

Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino will be all too aware of the importance of this fixture, then. With Arsenal doing their ‘Annual Arsenal’ and both Manchester clubs looking strong again, dropped points will increase the questions about a potential top four finish. Whether Chelsea can be caught or not, Spurs currently look the team most likely to push them deep into the season, but even they are only four points away from fifth.

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Little can be decided by one match at this point in the season, however, Liverpool, in particular, could look back on this as a pivotal moment in their campaign. Spurs, meanwhile, will be happy with a draw, one would imagine.

Here are THREE duels that could define the match…

Harry Kane vs. Joel Matip

Despite the improvement in form from Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, Harry Kane remains the man to stop for Spurs. Even when he is not scoring, Kane is the focal point of the attack, manipulating the game with his back to goal and moving intelligently to create holes in the defence.

The Englishman is Spurs’ greatest goal threat, and in a team that is hardly laced with prolific finishers, he justifiably attracts all the defensive attention. Going head-to-head with Liverpool’s towering rock, Joel Matip, the winner of this exchange may well win the match.

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Full-back matchups

Tottenham and Liverpool rely on their full/wing-backs for width. Both teams look to overload centrally and create through the free movement of their attacking midfielders. For this to work effectively it requires space, that space must be created by the full-backs pushing up and providing a feasible passing option to stretch the play.

Whichever team can pin the opposition full-backs deepest will have the greatest offensive freedom as a result. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose are key outlets for Spurs when they have possession in the final third, so Liverpool must find a way to restrict their influence.

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Toby Alderweireld vs. Sadio Mane

Spurs’ defence has looked significantly safer when Toby Alderweireld has been available, which is little surprise considering his status as one of the world’s best. While Liverpool have been blunt in attack of late, the return of fully fit Sadio Mane – who will be more rested after a week off – is expected to spark their forward into action.

Liverpool’s most direct attacking outlet against one of the best central defenders in the world is evidently going to be massive in this match. Whether Mane opts to drift wide on occasion or hang on the last defender, how Spurs deal with him could make or break Liverpool’s offensive moves.

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Anthony Martial has revealed that he wants to stay at Manchester United for the long haul, reports Sky Sports.

What’s the word?

The France international has not had the easiest of seasons under Jose Mourinho having struggled to keep himself first choice.

At times, the 21-year-old has been left out of matchday squads altogether, and has managed just three Premier League goals in 14 outings.

He has not quite matched the form of his debut season when he netted 11 times in the top flight, but he has shown signs of improvement after starting the last three games on the bounce.

There were rumours that Martial could look for pastures new in the summer, but the man himself has insisted that he wants to stay put.

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Sky Sports quotes the forward as saying:

“I love Manchester, I love the club and I love the fans. [The supporters] give me a lot of joy and I really enjoy having them backing me. I try to be as good as possible to make them happy, to satisfy them, so what I just want is to stay as long as possible at this club.”

Is Martial right to stick it out at United?

Absolutely. People may forget that Martial is only 21 years old and has had just one full season at Old Trafford.

It is natural to expect progression following an impressive debut campaign, but various factors have obviously affected his form.

Mourinho can be ruthless when it comes to his players, but his early-season treatment of Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a good example of how he can get the best out of someone.

Martial seems to have worked his way back into the manager’s good books, and it will help him in the long-term if he has to continue proving his ability.

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Manchester United’s season has been a mixed bag so far, with Jose Mourinho steadying the ship after a disappointing start to the Premier League campaign.

Much of the campaign has been slightly underwhelming for the Red Devils though, with sides around them continuing to pick up steam – whilst Mourinho’s boys have limped to draws and narrow victories. They are undefeated in the Premier League since October, though, so there has been substantial growth since Mourinho arrived. But more work is certainly needed.

Part of Mourinho’s job this summer is going to be focusing on improving the players at his disposal, and with that should come better results. One player reportedly on his transfer list is Monaco star Benjamin Mendy, who was mightily impressive against Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Mendy was unstoppable on the night, providing a whopping seven crosses as he continued to bombard Manchester City’s defence with a real offensive threat down the left-hand side. It will come as no surprise that he earned an assist on the night, too, with his offensive impact clear for all to see.

Defensively, Mendy’s four tackles, five inceptions and three clearances indicate that his role was absolutely vital – with Manchester City giving very little to go on going forward. This is particularly interesting given that the Citizens are often particularly proficient down the flanks through both Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, but it appears Mendy’s defensive stability prevented them from making an impact.

Likewise, the 69 touches that he made throughout indicate that his influence was regular and thorough, which certainly implies the magnitude of the impact that he would have at Old Trafford, should he make the move this summer.

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Everton midfielder Ross Barkley has come back from his England exile, and it is understandable why.After last summer’s European Championships, the midfielder was overlooked by Sam Allardyce, whose spell in charge of the national team was pretty much over before it really began.For a period of time this season, Barkley struggled to hold down a regular place in Ronald Koeman’s team and he was subjected to a spot on the bench.However, the 23-year-old is now performing well and has been rewarded with a spot in Gareth Southgate’s England team for an international friendly with Germany and a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania.Barkley has scored five goals and produced seven assists in 29 appearances in all competitions.Opta has revealed that the midfielder is also at the top of the England charts of players who have created the most goalscoring opportunities.

Throughout the campaign so far, Barkley has created chances for his team 64 times, and no other English player has been able to better it.

There is an undercurrent of concern over the midfielder’s future, though, as he has 15 months left on his contract and a new deal is yet to be agreed.

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As reported by The Evening Times, Stuart Armstrong is feeling optimistic about his chances of securing a new Celtic contract after a whirlwind season for the midfielder.

What’s the story?

Fresh from playing a starring role in his debut for the Scotland national side, Stuart Armstrong’s season looks set to get even better after he revealed talks have started about extending his contract at Celtic Park.

The midfielder’s deal runs out in 2018 but it appears all parties want to extend that relationship further.

As quoted by The Evening Times, Armstrong said:

The club and my representatives are in negotiations and things seem to be going well. It has been a very good season and Brendan Rodgers has been great for me. He has come in and allowed me to play central midfield which has really developed my game so I’m in a good place at the moment and I just want to enjoy it.

The former Dundee United man has become a key part of Celtic’s set-up this season and this news will be a big boost to supporters who have taken a massive shine to the swashbuckling midfielder.

Is he set to have the best season of his career next year?

How good can he be?

Armstrong’s emergence this season was a surprise for Celtic supporters everywhere. Often shunted out onto the left under previous boss Ronny Deila, many didn’t expect him to have much of a future in the Hoops, especially as in the early part of the season the likes of Scott Brown and Tom Rogic looked untouchable.

However a switch to a more central role has been the making of him and it’s left fans wondering how they ever doubted his ability.

The key thing here is that he isn’t just in good form, he’s getting consistently better and learning week to week how to impact games. That trajectory can only be a good thing and given he’s only just gained his first international cap, the ceiling is high in terms of how good he can be.

Tying him down to a new contract will be a major bit of business by the Bhoys and could set the stage for the Scottish star to lay down the season of his life next year.

Celtic have secured a sixth successive league title with a thumping 5-0 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle. It’s an incredible achievement, especially when you consider that up to this point they have gone the entire domestic season unbeaten.

Goals from Scott Sinclair, Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts sealed the victory. Sinclair was in especially good form, scoring his first hat-trick since arriving in Scottish football.

If there were any thoughts of a struggle to get over the line, those were blown away in short order after the English winger scored two in two minutes halfway through the first half.

In the second half Celtic got even better, scoring two superb goals and a penalty to give supporters all around the world a very memorable day.

Confidence is so high at the club right now that supporters believe that the Hoops will go on to win an unprecedented 10 league titles in a row, making Scottish football history by surpassing their own record total in the 60s and 70s that was equalled by Rangers in the 80s and 90s.

They took to Twitter to celebrate a momentous day in the history of the club…

Liverpool ensured they kept their hopes of a top four finish in the English Premier League alive with a hard fought victory away to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.

Roberto Firmino scored his second winner in as many weeks, heading home to net his 12th Liverpool goal of the season.

Grinding out results has become a new trait for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The Anfield boss will be pleased to see his team starting to win ugly as well as turning on the style on occasion.

It was the Reds’ fifth win in seven games, ensuring they continue to hold on to their third place position in the Premier League.

It wasn’t all positive for the Reds supporters though, who were left frustrated throughout the afternoon by one man in particular; Dejan Lovren.

While Liverpool didn’t concede, his distribution faced heavy scrutiny with the defender judged to have surrendered possession too often for the Reds support to bear.

They took to Twitter to share their thoughts on his performance…

Although they’ve missed out on the title after taking the fight into the final few weeks once again, Tottenham can be rightly proud of their achievements over the last two seasons.

Since Mauricio Pochettino arrived at White Hart Lane, the focus has been on building something to last, and with an exciting young squad who are maturing together and gaining experience of title races and European football, he looks to have done that.

It was the Argentine’s first season in charge which laid the groundwork for what was to come in the next two seasons. In that first year, Spurs conceded 53 goals, ending the season with a goal difference of +5 and a worse defensive record than relegated Hull City. If it weren’t for Harry Kane’s 21 league goals, who knows where they would have finished.

The same can probably be said of any team with a goalscorer, of course. But it wasn’t the attack that was preoccupying Pochettino.

The very next season things changed dramatically: from one of the worst defences in the league (only four teams conceded more) in 14/15, Spurs had the best in 15/16. It was the first time since 1951 that they’d finished the campaign with the best defence in their division. Barring a collapse in the final few weeks of this season, though, they’re about to achieve that for the second time in a row.

It’s an incredible transformation, and has been down to the high pressing game that Spurs have implemented as well as the fact that having a defensive midfielder like Eric Dier, who could drop between the centre backs, meant the side could form a base to press from.

We all know about the system, but when you come into a club with such obvious defensive frailties and turn it into the best defence in the league for two years in a row, there must be more to it than just organisation – there must be something mental involved, too.

Indeed, when you look at Spurs’ record at the start of the last two seasons, you start to see that there is: this is a team who don’t get beaten easily. They’ve only suffered three defeats this season, and six last season (though that does include two in their final two games once the title game was up).

But sometimes when you’re geared up not to lose, you can go too far in that direction: you start to think about not losing rather than risking enough to win. After defeat to Manchester United in the first game of last season, Spurs went 14 games unbeaten between August and December, but they drew eight times in that run. In the first 11 games of this season, over half (six) were drawn.

These two runs to start the last two seasons have ultimately cost Spurs the title both times, leaving them with too much ground to make up on runaway leaders both times.

And so this summer is an important one for Mauricio Pochettino.

Not necessarily because Tottenham need to win a title, or because their best players or even their manager might leave if they don’t do as well next season. But it’s important because this team have played the best football in the league at times this year, and in order to take them to the next level and actually win the league, they need to turn some of those early-season draws into victories.

How do they do that? Well, perhaps the one thing they lack is a player who will take on defenders. There is only one player in Tottenham’s team who completes more than two dribbles per game, and that’s Mousa Dembele. And yet, as important as the Belgian’s ability to carry the ball forward is to the team, he isn’t dribbling past players in the most dangerous areas.

The next best player in the team is Erik Lamela, with 1.7 per game. That’s more like it, but this is a player who hasn’t played for Tottenham since October.

If Pochettino were looking to bring that sort of player into the team, however, there is one option that would kill two birds with one stone. Aside from the fact that Spurs don’t have a player with proven dribbling ability, they also don’t have Premier League winning experience. But there’s one player has both.

Valued by TransferMarkt.com at £25.5m, Leicester City attacker Riyad Mahrez would really fit the bill. He was last season’s player of the year, would bring pace, skill and guile to the side, and in the Champions League this season – arguably a better barometer of Leicester’s form, given their dismal Premier League defence – he has averaged 2.9 dribbles. Far higher than any Spurs player, and certainly in more dangerous areas.

The Telegraph have, today, reported that Leicester would be willing to let him leave this summer, too. And so it would seem like the perfect match: he’s available, and Spurs need a player like him.

Some would have their doubts about his ability to fit into a team who press so hard and so high. But it Pochettino wants to take Spurs to the next level, his squad arguably needs that sort of player. It would be harsh to describe Tottenham’s squad as ‘functional’, in the sense of lacking flair, but they are definitely lacking a player who can break through the lines by himself and score a goal out of nothing.

The first stage in the Pochettino revolution was to shore up the defence, turning defeats into draws. The next step is to turn those hard-fought draws into wins. And you do that by bringing in a player who can do what the rest of your squad can’t.

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According to reports from The Daily Mail, Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are all monitoring Demarai Gray’s situation at Leicester City ahead of the summer transfer window.

The 20-year-old appears to be highly rated by those at the King Power Stadium but he’s made just nine Premier League starts so far this season, despite some impressive cameo performances from the bench, and has been left on for the full ninety minutes on only two occasions.

Counter-intuitively, it seems Gray may have to move up the table to get more game-time and he’s certainly not short of admirers. But of all three clubs linked, Tottenham would appear to suit him best; Mauricio Pochettino has a phenomenal record when it comes to nurturing English players and his Spurs side are in need of an option who can add width and pace to their attack.

So, Spurs fans, should your club activate Gray’s alleged £22million release clause, or would you rather see him join Everton or Liverpool? Let us know by voting below…