Heading into the game, Newcastle were dealt the news that Bruno Guimaraes would be ruled out until April due to a hamstring injury. The Brazilian was among six changes from Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
Aaron Ramsdale, Lewis Hall, Sandro Tonali, William Osula, Jacob Murphy and Nick Woltemade came into the starting XI as Nick Pope, Sven Botman, Anthony Gordon, Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock also made way.
Newcastle started well, Woltemade in particular in his fluid midfield role, but fell behind when Tammy Abraham finished off a short corner routine. Replays showed Abraham was offside when he received the ball from Douglas Luiz but with no VAR in operation, the goal stood.
The Magpies’ frustrations with the officials continued as Harvey Barnes and Lewis Hall had penalty appeals turned down, while Lucas Digne was fortunate to only see yellow for a late challenge on Murphy.
Villa were eventually reduced to 10 men in first-half stoppage time when goalkeeper Marco Bizot was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Murphy as he raced through on goal.
If United thought the bad officiating was left in the first half, they were to be mistaken. Trippier’s cross hit the arm of Digne inside the box but the officials instead awarded a free-kick.
Fortunately, justice was served as Trippier’s resulting free-kick was cleared into the path of Tonali, whose shot deflected off Luiz and past substitute goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Tonali then made it 2-1 from a similar position but his drilled effort needed no deflection as it flew into the bottom left corner. Woltemade then made sure of the win the closing stages with his first goal since December.
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