Analysis: Newcastle horror show underlines task facing Unai Emery at Aston Villa

Any horror movies the incoming head coach might choose to watch on Halloween won’t be so scary as the second-half showing served at Newcastle up by the team he is about to inherit.

The notion a few tactical tweaks might be sufficient to send Villa soaring away from their lowly position in the Premier League tables were dispelled in the space of 12 minutes on Tyneside as a relatively tight match, in which the visitors were still very much interested, rapidly became a rout and an exercise in damage limitation.

Issues in this Villa team run far deeper than formations. Emery’s biggest challenge will be transforming the mentality of a group of players who for too long have been too easily beaten.

This was Villa’s seventh defeat in 13 Premier League matches this season and their 37th in 75 league games since the start of 2021. From the beginning of last season, they have claimed only nine points from losing positions, with only one of those coming away from home. That was the recent 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest, their solitary point from seven away matches this term. When the going gets tough, particularly on the road, this Villa team are typically nowhere to be seen.

In a strange way the most encouraging thing at St James’s Park for Emery, watching from afar, may have been the performance of the hosts.

A year ago Newcastle sat bottom of the table without a win to their name and yet here was their manager, Eddie Howe, fielding questions in his post-match press briefing about a possible assault on the top four. The Magpies are proof such transformations are possible, albeit plenty of hard work is required.

It helps, of course, when you have the backing of the Saudi Arabian state. The big money additions of Sven Botman and Bruno Guimaraes in particular have added class and steel to the spine of Howe’s team. Yet the former Bournemouth boss has also succeeded in wringing the best from the players he inherited from Steve Bruce. All three of Newcastle’s goalscorers – Callum Wilson, Joelinton and Miguel Almiron – were part of the team struggling so badly 12 months ago – the latter pair frequently derided for their performances. Almiron is now playing as well as anyone in the league and his seventh goal of the season, to cap Saturday’s scoring, was the latest in a series of picture book goals. Whether Emery can coax Leon Bailey or Ollie Watkins to similar heights remains to be seen but barring the 37-year-old Ashley Young, who has been operating close to his best for the past two months, there isn’t a player in Villa’s squad who could not be doing significantly better.

Singling out individuals after such a collective failure feels harsh in some respects but one of the first questions facing the new boss will how he addresses the conundrum of Villa’s two playmakers, Emi Buendia and Philippe Coutinho, who have cost the club a combined £50million.

There is certainly an argument to say Buendia suffered from a lack of consistent playing time under Steven Gerrard but it is also true after nearly 18 months in the Midlands he is yet to justify his club record £33m fee. For all the Argentine’s flashes of quality, there remains a suspicion that – much like Jack Grealish before the arrival of Dean Smith – he too often chooses the easy option. On Saturday his insistence at dropping deep early in the second half and poor distribution only served to set up a series of Newcastle attacks and put pressure on his own defence.

What has saved Buendia from more serious scrutiny is the woeful form of Coutinho, whose outing for the final half-hour at St James’s Park was surely the most anonymous substitute appearance of any Villa player this season. All of it, incredibly, in front of the watching Brazil head coach Tite. It would be a huge surprise if Coutinho, still yet to score or set up a goal this season, was included in his World Cup squad.

For first-team coach Aaron Danks this was a sobering reality check, just six days after Villa had themselves thrashed Brentford 4-0 in his first match in temporary charge. It was impossible not to feel sympathy for the 42-year-old, who along with goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler and set pieces coach Austin MacPhee will likely learn today whether he is part of Emery’s plans.

Fielding the same XI which dismantled the Bees felt a bold move but neither, even allowing for the scoreline, could it be called the wrong one. Villa were well in the game during an opening half punctuated by a head injury to goalkeeper Emi Martinez which eventually forced his withdrawal and unfortunate to be trailing at the break to a penalty converted by Wilson after Almiron’s shot had struck the arm of a diving Young.

The day’s defining moment came 11 minutes into the second half when Villa switched off at a corner and Wilson was left unmarked to nod home Kieran Trippier’s cross inside the six-yard box. Within three minutes Joelinton had added a third and after Almiron made it 4-0 the visitors were fortunate to see both Wilson and substitute Jacob Murphy hit the woodwork.

Danks, like Smith and Gerrard before him, watched on as the team unravelled. From tomorrow, Emery is the man who must find solutions. For Villa’s players, there can be no more hiding behind the manager.