Newcastle United have followed on from last season's impressive form with a 2-1 home win over Tottenham today.

Alan Pardew's men were outplayed for large portions of the first half with Jermain Defoe hitting the base of the post and Gareth Bale's header glancing the face of the crossbar but managed to rally in the second term to record their first win over Spurs since December 2008.

The first goal came in the 54th minute when Demba Ba controlled a long ball from the right after it popped up off Kyle Walker's attempted headed clearance, to curl home a sumptuous shot from the left side of the area for his first goal since strike partner Papiss Cisse debuted in early February.

With just under 15 minutes remaining, Spurs got a deserved equalizer when Defoe followed up his own header which had been kept out by Tim Krul to force it home from close range, giving him a winner for England and a leveller for his club inside a week.

But not long after Defoe's goal, Newcastle again took the lead when Hatem Ben Arfa's trickery forced Aaron Lennon and Rafael van der Vaart to bring him down in the area with the Frenchman dusting himself off to slot coolly past Brad Friedel for the win.

It was not the ideal start for Andre Villas-Boas and his Tottenham side but there is plenty to work with after looking the goods at times against a well-organised Toon outfit.

Newcastle United: 2 (Demba Ba 54', Hatem Ben Arfa (p) 80') Tottenham: 1 (Jermain Defoe 76')

Sports Direct Arena, Newcastle-upon-Tyne - 52,385

Yellow cards:NEW - Danny Simpson 14', Yohan Cabaye 45+2' TOT - Jake Livermore 17', Sandro 19'

Match notes: - Andre Villas-Boas (first game in charge of TOT), Gylfi Sigurdsson (TOT debut), Vurnon Anita (NEW & Premier League debut), Harry Kane (Premier League debut for TOT)