Welcome to the Newcastle v Aston Villa preview
Thursday 26th December – 3PM
St James’ Park hosts a Christmas cracker live on Amazon Prime this Boxing Day as the Toon welcome Aston Villa in one of the picks of the festive fixtures.
Both teams will be looking to build on recent success and with neither side afraid to give it a go, this should be a battle not to be missed.
Here’s hoping it’s the perfect tonic to alleviate the tedious Crimbo limbo so grab a turkey sandwich, pour some hair of the dog and keep those fingers crossed for three more points because (to quote Mariah Carey) all we want for Christmas is Toon!
Form
In the past six league matches, Newcastle have won two, drawn two and lost two. That fails to take into account however, that the wins came in their last two matches and book-ended a tremendous League Cup quarter-final victory that once again has fans dreaming of Wembley. That’s three wins on the bounce in all competitions for United now with eleven goals scored and just the one conceded. A win for Newcastle coupled with results elsewhere could see us as high as fifth in the league, whereas a disastrous set of results could have us as low as twelfth.
Aston Villa have won three of their past six league matches with two draws and just the one defeat. Their wins have all come in home matches, against Man City, Southampton and Brentford. They’ve also tasted success in Europe. They haven’t won an away Premier League match for over two months, so fingers crossed that continues. Villa currently sit sixth and could be anywhere between fourth and tenth depending on results elsewhere.
Last time out
Newcastle obliterated Ipswich last weekend with a 4-0 win that at one stage looked like it may be on a par with our 8-0 win away at Sheffield United last season. Isak opened the scoring after just a few seconds and Murphy smashed home an incredible second to put the Toon firmly in control. When Isak made it 3-0 with a tap-in at the end of the first half, it seemed the points were definitely on their way to Tyneside. Isak made sure of this and bagged himself a free ball by completing his hat-trick in the second half.
Aston Villa celebrated a fine win of their own over the weekend when putting Man City to the sword 2-1. Villa were good value for the win, taking a 2-0 lead before City pulled back a late consolation.
Stat attack!
Newcastle have won their last three home matches against Aston Villa, the most recent being a 5-1 success on the first day of the 22/23 season.
Aston Villa have won none of their past sixteen visits to St James’ Park! Their most recent win came in bizarre circumstances against an eight-man United in 2005.
United have only lost only two Premier League home matches against Villa in twenty-seven meetings.
NUFC have won six of their past ten home matches with Villa in all competitions, drawing the other four.
Memorable match
When Newcastle were promoted from the Championship in 2010, a twist of fate had their first home match being against the team that had sent them down fifteen months previously.
Villa fans had behaved atrociously when glorying in the demise of NUFC but what goes around comes around and a few thousand of them were forced to endure a rotten away day as NUFC ruthlessly hammered the Villains on the pitch and Toon fans revelled in the scoreline.
Sob On The Tyne Banner Aston Villa Fans
Goals from Barton, Nolan and Carroll had United 3-0 up at half time and further second half scoring from Nolan and Carroll (twice to complete a hat-trick) sealed a phenomenal 6-0 victory. Karma only bites those who behave badly and as the chant of “you’re not laughing any more” boomed around St James’ Park, it’d be nice to think it applied to some in the away end who mocked and goaded travelling Toon fans through relegation in 2009. Final score Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa.
Played for both
Aaron Hughes made his debut for NUFC at the Nou Camp in 1997. He stayed until signing for Villa in 2005 and almost holds the Premier League record for the most appearances without ever being sent off, only Ryan Giggs with more.
Nobby Solano was a fan favourite at NUFC, scoring a number of memorable goals with my favourite being a last minute winner at Elland Road in 2001. The free-kick specialist was sold to Villa by Sir Bobby in 2003 but then bought back by Graeme Souness in 2005 to score more crackers including a belter in a 1-0 win over Arsenal.
Charles N’Zogbia scored some great goals for NUFC, including a superb solo effort away at Sunderland in a 4-1 derby success. He signed for Villa in 2011 after a spell at Wigan Athletic and spent four seasons in the claret and blue.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 4-0 away win against Ipswich:
“Absolutely delighted with the players and what they have given this week. It has been a really big week for us. Getting through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup was one of our big aims and our league form needed to improve, so brilliant to get back-to-back wins. We are just constantly trying to tweak things and trying to improve. There are a number of little things to upturn our form. Our creative play has been back to what it has always been – free scoring and looking like we can create at any time.”
Alex Isak Goal Ipswich Newcastle
Unai Emery after a 2-1 home win over Manchester City
“We were starting the match trying to press strongly and in the first minute we did fantastic, We created the first chance through it. In 90 minutes you have to do more things, with and without the ball. Manchester City are a little bit under the confidence they had normally. The second half was different, we dominated and we scored. Through those circumstances they were feeling worse than even in the first half.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.
Prediction
Both teams are in good form and (famous last words) I can see this being a class match.
Newcastle have been in free scoring form and I’m hoping this match will provide an extra Christmas present for everyone associated with NUFC.
We’ve scored eleven goals in our past three matches and a few more would do very nicely indeed: Newcastle 3-1 Aston Villa.