It’s good being an Aston Villa fan right now. There is much to admire in what is happening in and around Aston Villa. A stadium expansion, the new inter-city academy, oh and Unai Emery is allowing Villans to dream as they make it seven wins from eight and close in on a potential finish in a European spot.
Will we get the Champions League? Probably not. Teams have games in hand on us but can we get a top 7 finish? Play as we did against a Newcastle side who have only lost three times (before this game) all season and we will get ourselves every chance.
Social media is awash with optimistic Villa fans right now who are all rightly dreaming of where this season could take us but I’m one of those boring fans. Did I enjoy the win over the weekend? Damn right, I did but now I have one eye on our away game against Brentford next weekend. One game at a time for me and let’s see where this adventure takes us.
Report: Aston Villa 3-0 Newcastle
Most of the pre-match talk was about both sides’ form and Villa’s so-called xG. A lot was made that Villa had only beaten sides in their recent run of games. Newcastle fans were confident and why shouldn’t they be following the season they have had so far? The issue for them so was Villa.
Emery opted to bring in Leander Dendoncker for the injured Leon Bailey with Captain John McGinn moving outside. Bertrand Traore had to settle for a place on the bench despite his recent heroics.
The scoreline in the end probably flattered Eddie Howes’s side who were completely outplayed from the first whistle.
Jacob Ramsey who moved from the right to the left wing with the shuffle due to Bailey’s absence laid off a great chance for Ollie Watkins in the first minute. The youngster who is closing in on 100 Premier League games played a through ball for Watkins who held off the challenge of Sven Botman but he could only steer his effort onto the post.
It was only a warning for Newcastle though as Watkins was on a mission. Newcastle came close when Alexander Isak forced Emi Martinez into a sharp save but it was Villa who took the lead.
McGinn picked up the ball on the right following some nice build-up play, he then picked out Watkins who was able to rise above the Newcastle defenders to head the ball back into the path of Ramsey who smashed the ball home.
The only complaint you could have had from Villa at half-time was that it was only 1-0. I commented to friends that there was no way we could keep up this domination but how wrong could I have been?
Watkins who was a constant thorn in the Newcastle defence all afternoon tried to double Villa’s lead but his effort was too close to Nick Pope who was able to save with his legs.
Against the run of play, Jacob Murphy came close for the visitors but his shot went wide of the goal. Newcastle then introduced Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson off the bench to try and change their fortunes and it almost worked straight away.
Isak forced Martinez into another save, and the ball fell to Almiron but he sent his effort into the side netting.
Moments later, Villa thought they had finally doubled their lead. Watkins squeezed his shot under Pope but VAR ruled it out for a marginal offside.
Three minutes later Villa found their second goal as Villa erupted. McGinn found Alex Moreno who then picked out Watkins who turned Dan Burn before unleashing his shot through the defender’s leg and into the bottom corner.
Newcastle keep trying but it wasn’t their day. Almiron again came close but he was denied by a last-minute block from Tyrone Mings.
The home side put the game to bed with seven minutes on the clock as Watkins scored his second when he got on the end of an Emi Buendia cross to make it 3-0.
Analysis
What a win. What a performance. Without a doubt Villa’s best performance of the season so far and their form goes much further back than the last eight games. They now have 38 points from 18 matches – Champions League form.
The problem for Villa is the games are running out but as Ron Saunders once stated “Do you want to bet against us?”
