· December 24 2024, 10:30
St James' Park will play host to Newcastle United versus Aston Villa on Boxing Day (Thursday) with a 3pm kick-off live on Amazon Prime.
Newcastle have hit a sweet run of form lately, although cynics will point to the level of the opposition. However, they will conveniently forget how we played against Liverpool before everything came to a screeching halt with the loss against Brentford.
Aston Villa will certainly prove to be a bigger test than the previous Premier League opponents, but that doesn't mean that Newcastle fans should worry too much.
If the lads can continue to play the way they have been lately then we really shouldn't worry too much about any opponent.
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Sandro Tonali bagged a goal on his debut against Aston Villa last season
Chris Sutton expects a comfortable home win on Thursday
That's a sentiment echoed by BBC pundit Chris Sutton who has backed the Magpies to batter Aston Villa on Thursday afternoon.
"Newcastle seem to be hitting a bit of form - as I predicted, although I don't like to mention it - and Alexander Isak looks unstoppable at the moment. It just shows that people should never write off Magpies manager Eddie Howe.
"Aston Villa were comfortable in their win against Manchester City on Saturday, and I love what Morgan Rogers is doing for them this season.
"Villa manager Unai Emery has a nice headache up front, to choose between Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran, and it means they have always got goals in them.
"It is Newcastle I am going with here, though. They seem to be building real momentum although I guess there is the risk I am reading too much into them being so comfortable against little Ipswich Town at the weekend.
"They were ruthless against little Ipswich at Portman Road, and I think they will be ruthless at home against Villa too.
"Sutton's prediction: 3-1"
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Is it getting carried away to suggest that the Champions League is still on?
Sutton only predicted a narrow win for Newcastle going into the Ipswich game, but he did predict a win, so hopefully he's right again but more accurate with the score prediction.
A comfortable win against Aston Villa will set us up nicely going to Old Trafford the following Monday.
The league is still very tight and every point and every goal makes a difference right now, so if we keep winning by large margins, we could still be in with a shout of nabbing a Champions League spot. Let's get carried away!