Villa Park now awaits – Aston Villa v Newcastle preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Aston Villa v Newcastle preview.

Saturday 16th August – A 12.30pm kick-off

Newcastle United look to put a frustrating transfer window behind them this weekend when real football returns after a twelve-week absence.

Facing an Aston Villa side who only just missed out on Champions League football last season, this could be an early indicator of how we’ll fare against rivals with similar ambitions of establishing themselves as a regular fixture at Europe’s top table.

The Magpies will have an extra incentive as they look to avenge a disastrous 4-1 defeat at Villa Park at the back end of last season, as well as improving a fairly dismal recent record at what used to be one of our favourite away trips. This is the first of three straight Toon matches selected for live TV.

Newcastle have endured a difficult pre-season with defeats coming at the hands of Celtic, Arsenal, Team K League and Atletico Madrid. We’ve also drawn with Tottenham and Espanyol, whilst enjoying just the one win against Carlisle United. Thankfully all of this will count for very little come the start of the season.

Aston Villa have also had a fairly mixed bag of results this pre-season. They’ve lost to Walsall, Hansa and Marseille, drawn with Frankfurt and Nashville but beaten St Louis, Roma and Villarreal in preparation for the real stuff.

Last time out

Newcastle competed in the Sela Cup last weekend and followed up a 2-2 draw with Espanyol (Targett and Murphy for us) with a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid that saw the Magpies relinquish their grip on the trophy. A miserable day was compounded when Antony Gordon limped off near the end with an injury that, thankfully, isn’t as bad as first feared.

Aston Villa travelled to Villarreal on Sunday evening and came away with a very credible 2-0 win as they completed preparations for their match-up with the Toon.

Newcastle have won just one of their past nine visits to Villa Park in all competitions.

The Toon have racked up an impressive nine Premier League victories at Villa Park.

The last time these teams met on the opening day came in 2023. Goals from Tonali, Isak (twice), Wilson and Barnes sealed a glorious 5-1 victory for the black and whites.

Fabian Schar has scored three times in his past two appearances at Villa Park.

Memorable match

In January 1997, the whole of Tyneside was left reeling by the shock news that Kevin Keegan had resigned after five years as manager. Our first match since his sudden departure was at Villa Park and the travelling Toon Army had to rally round their wounded players.

Newcastle got off to the perfect start when Alan Shearer muscled past a defender and found himself through on goal before putting us 1-0 up. The lead was doubled a few minutes later when Lee Clark took advantage of a slip by villa keeper Mark Bosnich to lob the ball into an empty net and send the away fans into dreamland. Newcastle weren’t having it all their own way however and Dwight Yorke reduced the deficit before half-time. With both teams knowing that the next goal would be absolutely crucial, Aston Villa struck early in the second half to level the match and were then given a golden chance to complete the comeback when Phillipe Albert conceded a penalty. Thankfully Shaka Hislop was able to make a save from childhood friend Dwight Yorke, meaning both teams would have to be content with a point from an entertaining 2-2 draw.

Newcastle would go on to appoint Kenny Dalglish as Keegan’s successor and he’d guide us to a second place finish which opened the door to a first ever Champions League campaign. The future looked very rosy indeed, what could possibly go wrong?

Played for both

Ciaran Clark played for Aston Villa between the years of 2009 and 2016 and scored a header against Newcastle in a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park in 2012. He signed for Rafa Benitez in 2016 and formed a solid partnership in defence with Jamaal Lascelles as the Toon looked to gain promotion from the Championship at the first time of asking. A combative player with an eye for the odd goal, Clark would go on to make over one hundred appearances in a seven-year spell on Tyneside and also played over thirty times for the Republic of Ireland.

Marlon Harewood endured a frustrating time at Villa Park with Martin O’Neill tending to use him as an impact substitute. He struggled for first team opportunities despite previously enjoying promising spells at both Nottingham Forest and West Ham. He signed on loan for Newcastle in 2009 and scored an impressive five goals in just fifteen championship appearances.

Matt Targett spent three seasons at Aston Villa and was named Player’s player of the year in 20/21 having played all thirty-eight league games. He signed for the Toon in Jan 2022 and netted a header just last week in the Sela Cup against Espanyol. He’d love a goal against his former club, here’s hoping!

Managers

Eddie Howe:

“When you experience the feeling of winning, you think it’s going to be great but, let me tell you, the experience is even better than I thought it would be. It does make you hungrier for more. It does make you appreciate the role you’re doing, the job you’re doing, and the ability to affect the people around Newcastle in the way we did. Our appetites are whetted. We’re desperate for more success but we know how difficult it is and we know the challenge that awaits us with every team in the Premier League getting better and stronger. We’re going to have to do the same. If you can’t be excited by what we have to come – the Champions League, all the competitions we are going to be in – there is something wrong. If I wasn’t excited, I’d be the wrong person in this chair.”

Unai Emery:

“We are excited and hopefully tomorrow we show it at Villa Park. I like starting the season at Villa Park. Newcastle- what a game to enjoy, to prepare, to play and to try to do our best. It’ll be difficult, tactically they are very strong. Offensively and defensively, they win a lot of duels. Last season we both won sixty-seven points from thirty-eight games but they are in the Champions League and we’re in Europa League. The only difference was goals, the margins were so tight. We have to be intelligent tomorrow and we’ll have our supporters pushing us to win”.

Charity

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online go HERE.

Newcastle will be back in action on Monday 25th August when we host a Liverpool team desperate for revenge having been outfought, outthought and outplayed at Wembley in the League Cup final.

This has all the makings of a real cracker and the atmosphere promises to be electric. Broadcast live on Sky, it’s not to be missed.

Aston Villa travel to Brentford for a traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off on 23rd August, hopefully still looking for their first points of the season.

Prediction

It’s always hard to predict the first match of any season. The more pessimistic of us will be frustrated with the transfer window and worried about how the Isak saga will affect the team, whereas the more optimistic Toon fans (of which I count myself) will trust in Eddie’s ability to create a siege mentality in the face of adversity.

I fancy us to get a positive result from this one and hit the ground running. My head is saying 1-1 but I’m going with my heart and will predict three points for the black and whites. Aston Villa 1-2 Newcastle.