No team will want to face Newcastle now after Eddie Howe's midfield tweak has inspired an impressive four wins on the bounce
Newcastle 3-0 Aston Villa (Gordon 2′, Isak 59′, Joelinton 90’+1 | Duran red card 32′)
ST JAMES’ PARK — Suddenly it feels as if Eddie Howe has cracked the code.
After the introspection of early December – when Newcastle United‘s season threatened to topple into mid-table obscurity – they are ending the month with major momentum.
This defeat of Aston Villa was a fourth straight victory and the most impressive of the series, arriving against a fellow Champions League contender that they comprehensively unpicked with a mixture of energy and invention.
Who would want to play Newcastle in this sort of form? While the table remains compressed enough not to get carried away by rising to fifth in the Premier League, this run has real substance behind it.
2024 has been a confounding, contradictory year for the Newcastle project but is ending with a reminder of just how good their manager is.
There is no mystery to how Newcastle have turned the corner in the 19 days since shipping four at Brentford.
They have shifted through the gears since Howe settled on a system that pairs Bruno Guimaraes, newly deployed as a roaming No 8, and Sandro Tonali, now their conductor at No 6.
They were irresistible here on Boxing Day, instrumental in the first two goals with Tonali providing the sort of control that Newcastle have yearned for all year.
It was his intervention that paved the way for Anthony Gordon to set the tone inside two minutes, nicking the ball from the feet of Boubacar Kamara just inside his own half to feed the roaming Joelinton – another hitting form.
Gordon still had plenty to do to beat Emi Martinez but after cutting inside his strike was crisp enough to fly past a despairing left palm.
Guimaraes has been transformed by the midfield reclalibration. He could always pick a line-breaking pass but suddenly the fizz has returned to his press – the skipper’s attitude summed up as he harried Youri Tielemans in the third minute of injury time.
It was his fine pass that started the move to led to Alexander Isak’s goal, which arrived just as Villa were threatening to get back on top.
Newcastle CUT THROUGH Aston Villa ♨️
A simple tap-in for Alexander Isak to double the hosts' lead#PLonPrime #NEWAVL pic.twitter.com/rXhoNHZAEK
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 26, 2024
Aston Villa complaints centred on Jhon Duran’s red card, doled out after he ran his studs down Fabian Schar’s back after losing a 50/50 challenge.
It was a talking point and a turning point, but hardly a major injustice. When will players learn that raising a boot puts them in danger of sanction?
Minutes before an animated Emery had implored Duran to commit more but it was a foolish challenge that capped one of his less convincing days.
Emery cut a frustrated figure for most of this, rowing with Newcastle’s spiky number two Jason Tindall, who was subsequently sent off at half-time for clashing with a Villa analyst.
But his team were largely architects of their own downfall, giving the ball away far too much to construct a platform to get back into the game.
Typically the third, killer, goal from Joelinton came from a mistake – even if the Brazilian did brilliantly to curl it past Martinez.
Emery said Aston Villa would appeal Duran’s sending off. “For me, [it’s] not a red card,” the Villa boss said. “Completely not. I think he didn’t kick him voluntarily, on purpose. It is a high punishment for this action.” Howe agreed it was a harsh decision.