Alexander Isak gives Newcastle a boost as Tottenham suffer their first defeat of the season | Premier League

Newcastle's chief executive has compared the task of rebuilding the club to building a plane in the air and after this Eddie Howe will know exactly what Darren Eales meant.

There were times when Tottenham proved so dominant here that Howe's team not only seemed to be running on one engine but with a wing about to fall off and the landing gear stuck.

Exactly how Newcastle ended up safely cruising to the final whistle with three points neatly saved is something that looks set to perplex Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham staff for quite some time.

“We were in control for most of the game and just needed to kill it off,” said the visiting manager who, given the number of balls his side sent whizzing through Newcastle's six-yard box, could have counted on his new £65m striker Dominic Solanke, having been in form on the day when Tottenham's most threatening shots were launched from outside the 18-yard box. “I'm very disappointed. We had chances to win comfortably so to come away with nothing is a bitter pill to swallow.

Howe has warned about the need for his club to avoid “breaking itself apart” after a very tough and disappointing transfer window. Perhaps heeding that message, Newcastle’s players started out as if they were on a mission to tear Spurs apart. Despite being unable to sustain such a ferocious momentum, they not only kept their unbeaten start to the season intact, but, by exploiting Tottenham’s high defensive line, they remembered how to win on the counter-attack.

“It was tough,” Howe said. “They put pressure on us but we responded really well and found a way to win. It’s been a stressful and tough summer for us, so to move forward in such a positive way bodes well for the rest of the season. We’re not playing as well as we’d like, but we’re defending really well. It was a huge win.”

There was certainly enough information on hand to reassure Newcastle chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan on his latest visit from Riyadh.

While the post-match conversation between Rumayyan, Howe and the club's sporting director Paul Mitchell is unlikely to have been dull, at least the tension surrounding Crystal Palace's dismal month-long search for England centre-back Marc Guéhi is likely to have been somewhat eased by the early strength and late resilience of the home side's performance.

Harvey Barnes was a key reason for Tottenham's early problems, and even more so when he latched on to Lloyd Kelly's left-wing cross and volleyed his side ahead in the 37th minute. Considering the strange bounce of the ball as it lifted off a slippery surface greased by sporadic rain, Barnes' finish was exquisite.

Yet while the denizens of Gallowgate End marvelled at such sublime execution, Postecoglou's gaze suggested that Kelly seemed to be finding it all too easy to restrain Wilson Odobert.

In an attempt to change that narrative, the Australian introduced an impressive Brennan Johnson at the interval. With Johnson now out wide on the right and Dejan Kulusevski's ineffective performance as a false 9 over, Spurs suddenly became a very different proposition as the entire topography of the match changed.

The equaliser came when Dan Burn turned the ball into his own net after Nick Pope deflected a shot from the increasingly elusive James Maddison towards Johnson and Burn's attempted clearance turned into a moment of mortification.

Given that just before the equaliser Son Heung-min, far more effective than Kulusevski attacking through the centre, had a menacing shot go wide and Pedro Porro hit the bar, Newcastle were reeling.

The time had come for Sandro Tonali to replace Sean Longstaff and make his mark Premier League return after a 10-month suspension for betting violations.

Yet as Spurs forced a flurry of corners and the excellent Pope, who made some vital saves throughout the match, stretched every sinew to turn away Maddison's free-kick, the Italian midfielder was given very little chance to impose any sort of order in the centre.

No matter; Jacob Murphy, who came on as a substitute, was given a good education in the art of counter-attacking by his first Newcastle manager, Rafael Benitez. Murphy consequently made the most of Joelinton's defence-splitting pass, quickly breaking free before laying the ball off to Alexander Isak, who completed a routine finish.

By his lofty standards, the Swedish striker had not played all that well. Yet when Isak appeared in the right place at the right time and Rumayyan stood up and swayed to chants of “We’re going up in the Premier League”, it was abundantly clear that Howe had a specialist centre-forward on the pitch and Postecoglou did not.

“If we continue to play like this, I know we will be rewarded,” said the Tottenham manager. “The result does not reflect the performance. It is a painful result.”