Geordie fans have had plenty of ammunition to throw at Jenas since he left the club citing personal reasons in 2003, with Tottenham having struggled against Newcastle in recent years and the Magpies having scored more goals against Spurs during the Premier League era than any other club. Jermaine probably still has nightmares about his open goal miss during a 3-1 away defeat during the 2005-2006 season but the midfielder, who has been characteristically inconsistent so far this season, is looking forward to continuing his return from injury, saying: "I feel fine in myself, being injured doesn't help, especially when you are a squad player, but I am still positive".
Positivity has been admirably high of late, despite uninspiring league results, and spirits would have been further lifted before tonight's game with the news that Dimitar Berbatov, the club's talismanic forward, has been nominated for the prestigious Ballon d'Or. The Bulgarian forward is the first Tottenham player to be short-listed for the award since David Ginola in 1999. Martin Jol will be hoping the news will spur the forward on to replicating the sort of form that saw him score 23 goals during his first season at Tottenham, and the Dutchman has stoked the fires before this evening by questioning Newcastle's stature, claiming Newcastle fans would love the kind of success he has bought to Tottenham. "We've had European football for the last three years and they haven't, so why would we be in the same boat?" questioned the under fire coach. The move, aimed more as an example to his own Chairman than at Sam Allardyce's team, will probably only serve to motivate Allardyce's players, who have already been warned by Big Sam not to under estimate Tottenham despite our poor league position. Behind the scenes, however, both managers are unlikely to disagree that on paper, both sides are closely matched.
Taking into account recent form, Newcastle should be firm favourites. Unbeaten at home this season, Allardyce has tightened up the Newcastle defence since taking over from Glenn Roeder in the summer, adding a reliable spine to an already potent attacking force, facts backed up by the face that Newcastle have scored six goals in their past two home games. Tottenham are yet to win away. Jol knows that his own defence have to cut out the mistakes that have blighted the club's early season form if they to start picking up victories. "Hopefully they can develop and learn from the mistakes," said Jol, "I think 70 per cent of goals scored we avoidable - from corners, free kicks, from the edge of the box". Depressingly for Paul Robinson, Tottenham's defence will probably be buoyed by his absence with a calf I injury this evening, with Radek Cerny set to deputise. Robinson's England colleague Michael Owen returns to action tonight as well as form Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton, who has recovered from a fractured metatarsal.
Match prediction - Newcastle 2 Tottenham 2 . I feel that Jol will leave St James' Park this evening still in search of a much needed league win. A last minute lapse in concentration cost us a famous win at Anfield but confidence should be high amongst the players, who have shown a lot of character to recover from losing positions against Liverpool and Aston Villa. Allardyce has made Newcastle a generally stronger proposition and with players like Viduka, Owen and Martins, as well as the impressive Charles N'Zogbia, the former Bolton man has a wealth of attacking options available to him and Tottenham's defence will have to show more composure and doggedness than they have in recent weeks. I feel the game could go either way, hence predicting the draw, and the result may well hinge on the battle in the centre of the park, with Jenas bound to have a few crunching Joey Barton tackles coming his way. Both sides love to attack, and in the game at White Hart Lane last season I left baffled as to how we'd managed to lose, such was our domination. St James' Park will be a different proposition but the players should aim to start brightly in order to quieten the crowd as quickly as possible.