The visitors started the better of the two sides as debutant Marco Bizot was called into action and made key interventions to keep it goalless, as Villa continued to struggle in the first half to show any real quality of note.
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While our display did show signs of improvement after the interval, Ezri Konsa’s red card after 66 minutes changed the complexion of the game, as Villa naturally took a more defensive approach and that in turn allowed Newcastle to take control and continue to apply pressure.
Given how the game played out, it feels like a decent point for Villa as we showed solidity and resilience to keep a clean sheet and claim a draw in a difficult opening game of the campaign, and while Emery was full of praise for the supporters, he couldn’t hide his disappointment over dropping points at home.
_**“Grateful for our supporters. Full stadium, the first match we were, everybody, motivated and excited to start here winning,” he told [VillaTV](https://www.avfc.co.uk/video/6cf7aae5-0e92-4c3a-b51c-510b0861e656). “Of course, this is the 22nd match not losing at home and it is very good as well to achieve it, but (to) lose like we did today, two points at home, maybe is not the best.**_
_**“I am not happy only achieving one point, but how (it) was going the match, and against the opponent we have, we have to accept it at the end of the match. We didn’t concede a lot, but very good chances they had, and our goalkeeper saved fantastic, Marco (Bizot).**_
_**“After the red card, again, the match changed completely. Of course, in my mind, was (that) we have to try to get one transition and to score one goal to win. But firstly, we needed defensively to set a high commitment, everybody in (their) task, and they did it.**_
_**“And, of course, we didn’t concede a lot of chances. More or less, we were defending a lot of corners, and I think we have to accept this result.**_
There will be various areas to improve in ahead of our trip to Brentford next weekend, but the more prominent issue will be how do we cover the absence of Ezri Konsa as he’ll serve his suspension.
Boubacar Kamara dropped back into the defence after Konsa’s dismissal and impressed, while Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings could play together or Lamare Bogarde might be trusted to come in and fill the void.
That will be an important decision for Emery, but equally, he’ll want to tidy and sharpen up in some of the other areas in which we weren’t good enough this weekend, as we’ll need to show a lot more quality and composure in the attacking phase after struggling to really threaten Newcastle consistently enough, if at all.
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