Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 3 - Report
Concerns Villa are a team running out of steam will only be heightened by a first home Premier League defeat in nearly a year.
Not least the manner of it.
Villa 1 Newcastle 3 was, for the first hour at least, comfortably the poorest home Premier League performance of Unai Emery’s reign, delivering the first home defeat since February 18 last year.
The fact it came against a Newcastle team who, prior to kick-off, owned the division’s second-worst away record having lost seven out of 10 matches on their travels, made it all the more surprising.
Then again, perhaps not. After all, Villa had entered the evening on a run of just two wins in their last six matches.
They would have been confident of restoring some momentum in the campaign at a venue where they had won 20 of the previous 22 matches in all competitions.
Instead, it was the Magpies who were relatively comfortable winners, thanks to two goals in four first half minutes from Fabian Schar and an Alex Moreno own goal soon after the break.
There was a fair dollop of luck about the second and third goals but the hosts, flummoxed by their opponents’ tactics, could not complain too much.
That it wasn’t completely a cruise was due to Villa’s improvement after the puzzlingly late 63rd minute introduction of Leon Bailey.
The winger set up Ollie Watkins’ 50th Premier League goal and the striker's first in seven matches and nearly supplied another but for a marginal offside call.
Villa’s largely listless display might suggest fatigue, yet this also felt a rare night when their head coach, who stuck with the same team which started Friday’s FA Cup tie at Chelsea, got his gameplan wrong.
Emery’s men remain fourth in the table, still in a great position, yet subject to more doubts than at any other stage of what, to this point, has been an excellent campaign.
It took 20 minutes for the first big chance of the game to arrive and it was Newcastle who created it.
Specifically, Murphy, who picked out the run of Anthony Gordon with a lofted run over the top, the winger having ghosted in behind Ezri Konsa. Gordon chopped inside the Villa defender and Clement Lenglet but was denied by the legs of Emi Martinez, Alexander Isak then curling an effort just wide from the corner of the box.
Villa should have registered their first shot on goal soon after but Moussa Diaby inexplicably turned down the option to shoot after being played in by Youri Tielemans, his ambitions attempt to find Watkins easily cut out by the defence.
Matty Cash did register a shot on target, albeit straight at Martin Dubravka, but it was the visitors who were becoming more threatening.
Martinez got away with a rare error when he failed to hold Murphy’s shot, Lenglet diving in to block Sean Longstaff’s follow up.
Space was opening up behind and Gordon, a menace throughout, found himself in again with Konsa deflecting his shot over the bar.
It was a vital intervention from the defender, though he will have been less happy with his effort to stop Schar opening the scoring from the corner.
The centre-back seemed to catch Konsa napping as he arrived in front of him, six yards out, to side foot home Trippier’s delivery.
Four minutes later, Villa’s night got worse. Another corner, this time cleared to 20 yards out, was fired back toward goal by Gordon. The shot was unlikely to have troubled Martinez, had not Lenglet stuck out a leg, deflecting it over the keeper and onto the bar, Schar tapping it into the net having stayed marginally onside.
Villa needed to rally and in the closing moments of the half, they suggested they might do so, McGinn heading narrowly over at a corner.
But within seven minutes of the restart, the match was effectively finished as Newcastle got a third.
Again, there was an element of misfortune. Murphy failed to make a clean connection when arriving to meet Almiron’s cross just a couple of yards out at the far post but the ball hit Moreno and span over the line, before the latter clattered painfully into the post.
Villa picked up after that but it always felt too late, Emery waiting more than 10 minutes after the third goal to make changes. Diaby’s latest frustrating night was summed up when he rounded Dubravka but could not get enough power on the finish to prevent it being cleared off the line. Cash then forced the Newcastle keeper into his first serious save of the night.
With 19 minutes remaining, the mood changed. Bailey, menacing from the moment he was introduced, crossed for Watkins to hammer home his first Premier League goal since December 17.
A minute later the pair combined again, this time the celebrations cut short by a raised flag which a VAR check showed to be correct by mere millimetres.
Villa couldn’t sustain the pressure after that, or create more than half-chances, as their 17-match unbeaten home league run ended with a whimper.
Teams
Villa (4-4-2): Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lenglet, Moreno, McGinn, Kamara (Ramsey 63), Luiz, Tielemans (Zaniolo 63), Diaby (Bailey 63), Watkins Subs not used: Carlos, Chambers, Kesler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Olsen (gk), Wright (gk).
Newcastle (4-3-3): Dubravka, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Miley (Livramento 76), Guimaraes, Longstaff, Murphy, Isak (Almiron 43), Gordon (Krafth 90+9) Subs not used: Dummett, Ritchie, Hall, White, Hernes, Karius (gk).
