Barely seven minutes on the clock and Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United had already provided a highly-contentious flashpoint going the way of the visitors.

A first Premier League outing of 2025 presented an interesting clash in North London, with both Spurs and their opponents proving they are capable of scoring goals, whereas defending against them has been a huge issue.

To throw a spanner in the works for Ange Postecoglou, illness for Fraser Forster on top of Guglielmo Vicario's injury has forced another goalkeeper swap.

READ MORE: Why Ange Postecoglou was raging on Tottenham touchline as Newcastle expose Spurs weakness

READ MORE: Every furious word Ange Postecoglou said on handball, Bergvall, Brandon Austin and Dragusin change

With a £12.5m deal for Antonin Kinsky in the works, Brandon Austin has been handed a full debut on Saturday.

The match, which kicked off at 12:30pm, has so far lived up to the hype. Dominic Solanke headed in the opener from a superb Pedro Porro cross after three minutes, only for Anthony Gordon to level up three minutes after that.

Spurs were aggrieved with the goal, as they believed they had witnessed a handball by Joelinton in the build-up. It was an important touch of the hand, as Lucas Bergvall's pass could not make its intended target.

Instead the ball dropped to Bruno Guimaraes, who subsequently fed through to Gordon to net the equaliser. A Premier League statement via their Match Centre account on X explained VAR Chris Kavanagh's ruling on the matter.

It read: "The referee’s call of goal was confirmed by VAR, who checked for a potential handball by Joelinton in the build-up and deemed that his arm was by his side, in a natural position and the contact was accidental."

The Premier League rules explain in full that intentional handball is only judged when a player moves their arm towards the ball or makes their body bigger - in this instance, Joelinton was deemed in too close proximity to avoid the contact.