NEW Spurs boss Andres Villas-Boas said he was happy with his side's performance after they fell to an opening day defeat away at Newcastle.

The Portuguese manager told reporters he felt Spurs had played “very, very well,” despite conceding a late penalty which gave the home side all three points.

Much has been made of Andres Villas-Boas's attacking tendencies, but the new era began with Spurs laying out a defensive 4-5-1 formation: AVB's plan was to stifle Newcastle by offering Sandro and Jake Livermore as deep central midfielders and leaving just Jermain Defoe up front.

He also chose the experience of William Gallas at the back ahead of new signing Jan Vertonghen, and it looked a good choice in the opening 45 as Newcastle's celebrated attackers had little change out of the Spurs back four.

With Aaron Lennon looking lively on the right, Gareth Bale offering an outlet on the left, his team spent much of the first half going forward and testing Newcastle.

Defoe hit the post on half an hour, new boy Gylfi Sigurdsson saw a free kick pushed wide, and a Bale header came back off the bar.

But despite that good opening half, things faded after the break and a combination of early season nerves, the heat and a new formation meant it wasn't the most flowing of performances.

The opener for Newcastle came on 55: Spurs failed to sufficiently clear a speculative cross and Demba Ba curled a lovely effort home from the edge of the box.

An equaliser seemed possible and it came through the boot of Jermain Defoe. On 76, a lofted ball into the box was met by Defoe's head: it lacked the required power to take it goalwards but he was quickest to react to the save made by Tim Krul's legs and he snuck it home. It looked at that point like Spurs would get the draw their performance deserved.

However, just three minutes later, heartbreak: the lively Ben Arfa skipped into the box and went down heavily after Aaron Lennon tried to get in the way.

He got up to place his penalty home.

AVB can consider himself unlucky: Newcastle away is always a tough fixture and his charges gave a good account of themselves. But the fact so much possession did not equate into goals will only up the clamour for a couple of new strikers to be bought before September the First.

Spurs: Friedel, Kaboul, Gallas, Walker, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Bale, Sigurdsson (Van der Vaart) Livermore, Sandro (Kane), Defoe

SPURS COMMENT:

So the new reign begins, and despite coming home without a share of the spoils from St James' Park – sorry, The Direct Sports Arena – the team played well. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the performance wasn't how much the team missed Luka Modric, but how much the team could have done with Emmanuel Adebayor.

The midfield looked solid – even without Scott Parker – and Bale and Lennon had strong games, playing in their natural positions instead of being pushed and pulled all over, as they were so often last term.

But the lack of a big player up front to hold the ball up mean all too often it came straight back at the midfield. So much has been made of the loss of , but the signs here today was the middle of the park is in good hands and will get by without the player who has been a heart beat for the past four years. Instead, the priority must be a big striker. The sooner the issues over Adebayor are hammered out, the better.