Sandro Tonali anticipated being "more nervous" than usual about coming up against former club Newcastle United for the first time.
You suspect the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder felt a little sick following their 2-0 defeat on Saturday evening.
"Sandro, what's the score?" the away fans taunted in the closing stages as the substituted Italian looked on.
This bruising loss was certainly not the reunion Tonali had in mind after joining Spurs for a fee worth up to £100m last month.
It is still very early days, of course, but Newcastle appear to have reinvested the money wisely after spending a similar combined amount on midfielder Nico Gonzalez, defender Amar Dedic and goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek.
A number of the players head coach Matthias Jaissle inherited, such as goalscorers Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa, also look reborn.
Yet he was rightly not getting carried away following his first Premier League win.
"We have our own goals and we are clear with that," Jaissle said. "We are also realistic. Now you write everything is top, everything is great.
"We don't follow that too much. We are emotionally very stable and don't see the highs higher than it is now.
"It is a moment to enjoy as well after that start, but we are also smart enough to see a long journey ahead of us and there will be challenges as well."
Jaissle, by his own admission, "likes challenges" and this was certainly a big one to take on.
It is exactly 30 days since predecessor Eddie Howe oversaw what proved to be his final match in charge, a sobering 4-1 friendly defeat against Bristol City, before stepping down.
Newcastle had sold Tonali. Anthony Gordon had left for Barcelona. Captain Bruno Guimaraes' sights were set on a move to Arsenal.
The start of the season was also rapidly approaching.
Newcastle have made further additions since then, but only one of their seven summer signings, Gonzalez, has previously played in the Premier League.
All of the new arrivals are aged 24 and under.
Yet you would not necessarily know it by the immediate impact full-back Dedic has made following his £30m move from Benfica, or how Hornicek has stood up to the physicality of the Premier League since his £25.7m switch from Braga.
It could easily be forgotten, given what happened after the break at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Hornicek was among those to play an important role in this win after making three saves at crucial moments in the first half.
No wonder Jaissle clenched his fists on the touchline after Hornicek got a strong hand behind Jan Paul van Hecke's header.
There was a similarly enthusiastic reaction from the former Hoffenheim defender when Lewis Hall blocked a goalbound effort from Pedro Porro in the first half.
"In the first half, we didn't play a really good game, but we could really count on everyone throwing everything into every ball and every cross," Jaissle said.
"This is the commitment and belief that we can keep the clean sheet, so that makes me proud."
Although Newcastle defeated Spurs last season, too, there were also a number of games when the visitors wilted in such circumstances.
Newcastle won just four of their 19 top-flight matches on the road and, home or away, they had not previously kept a single clean sheet since March.
However, going in level in their first away day of this campaign gave Newcastle the chance to regroup at half-time.
The visitors sought to be more aggressive after the break and clinically took Spurs apart with their only two shots on target.
For the first, just as he did in the opening stages, new signing Gonzalez hit a stunning cross field ball over the head of Spurs left-back Andy Robertson for the advancing Dedic to flick on to Elanga, who turned Tonali inside the box and fired the ball in off the post.
"It is something that I spoke about with the coach, even before the game," Gonzalez said.
"He wanted me to see these kind of balls and I tried a few in the first half and the second half, and we scored.
"In the second half we said, 'we have to keep doing this' because it is really hard to defend players like Amar, a full-back that comes this fast from behind. Normally wingers don't defend these kind of balls very well.
"It's something that we have to keep doing and I hope it gives us many more goals this season."
For Newcastle's second, Sean Steur's corner was headed down by fellow substitute Nick Woltemade and Wissa improvised with a clever overhead kick to double his side's lead.
For all the focus on Newcastle's new arrivals, it was rather fitting that two players who endured difficult first seasons at the club stepped up under Jaissle once again as Elanga and Wissa built on improved showings against Liverpool on the opening weekend.
"He's a really dynamic manager so we need to give everything," Wissa told Sky Sports. "I think he's the best signing."
