3. 4-3-3>4-4-2
Though Newcastle didn't actually concede when playing 4-4-2 against Spurs, the fact that their opponents chose to play 5 in midfield meant that they occasionally looked short on ideas as to how to get beyond the Spurs central line, aside from Hatem Ben Arfa's runs with the ball that were all too often cut down with a cynical, and largely unpunished foul. In that formation, and facing three opponents in central midfield Yohan Cabaye was forced to play too flat to be effective as an attacking player, as he was to such great success for France this summer, and Cheick Tiote was forced to run around rather raggedly, which certainly didn't match his lack of match sharpness. Both players were pulled out of position all too easily, and ended up playing very deep, meaning the space between midfield and Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse upfront grew too wide and the frontmen ended up looking isolated and frustrated for the most part. To combat that Demba Ba spent a good deal of time dropping deep to collect the ball, with some success, but it wasn't until the team moved to a more balanced 4-3-3 that the team started to play better. He might not be too happy playing out wide, but Ba is actually successful on the left of a front three, and it was from that position that he scored his fantastically taken goal. The change in formation also led to Hatem Ben Arfa having more space, which is invariably a good thing, and meant Jonas Gutierrez could play in the middle, where he turned out to be far more successful- more of which later...