2 days ago
8
Some wins are a little bit lucky and others downright fluky or simply ground out, but this Aston Villa victory belonged to a different category.
It was the sort of triumph that can be filed under “thoroughly deserved”. Indeed, much of Villa’s attacking play was so fluid, fluent and gloriously improvisational that, by comparison, Newcastle looked as if they were engaged in a footballing equivalent of painting by numbers.
Howe employs so many analysts these days that there is a suspicion his team have become a little too formulaic, a bit over data-driven. Here though the off-the-cuff brilliance of Morgan Rogers and Emiliano Buendía, in particular, made the difference on a day when consistently intelligent defending from Unai Emery’s team, not to mention some impressive goalkeeping on Emiliano Martínez’s part, always made big differences.
Granted, Newcastle might have taken an early lead had Martínez, making his 200th Premier League appearance for Villa, not done extremely well to deny Sandro Tonali. Nick Pope, though, was soon performing similar wonders to divert an Ollie Watkins shot away for a corner following Jadon Sancho’s fine through pass.
And even Pope had no answer to Buendía’s swerving, dipping and stunning opening goal dispatched from the edge of the area.
Villa had conceded 12 goals on their last three visits to St James’ Park alone and had not won here since 2005 but, already, this felt different. Although Martínez was again required to excel when saving Lewis Miley’s header following Anthony Gordon’s cross, a home midfield lacking the injured Bruno Guimarães struggled to prevent Rogers from repeatedly making Newcastle’s right-back, Kieran Trippier feel his age. Rogers’s disorientating change of pace and sheer invention in possession perhaps explained why Villa were 10 points ahead of their hosts at kick-off.
This was only the 11th top-tier game Guimarães had missed since arriving from Lyon four years ago and, ominously for Howe, Newcastle had won none of the previous 10.
There is a chance that the Brazilian’s injured ankle will have healed in time for Wednesday’s all-important Champions League match at Paris Saint-Germain but that was of little help to his team here. And particularly on a day when Joelinton needed to temper his aggression after collecting a first-half yellow card and Tonali was not at his imperious best.
It all meant the invitations presented by Emery’s sometimes riskily high-defensive line were not being accepted by Yoane Wissa or any of his Newcastle teammates.
When Joelinton succumbed to a groin injury early in the second half, he was replaced by the Villa old boy, Jacob Ramsey. His arrival coincided with a mini home resurgence. Were Villa starting to feel the aftereffects of their flight back from Istanbul in the early hours of Friday morning after a Europa League win at Fenerbahce?
Perhaps, but Pope still needed to prove equal to a curling, counterattacking shot from Rogers and Howe still felt the need to replace the generally underwhelming Wissa and Gordon with Nick Woltemade and Anthony Elanga.
It failed to change the narrative. Watkins’s pace and movement had troubled Newcastle all game and, shortly after Pope had come between the centre-forward and a goal, Watkins did score Villa’s second.
This time the goal came from a set piece. Or more specifically, Newcastle’s failure to clear a corner. The ball eventually fell to Lucas Digne and his half volley across the box was met by Watkins’ diving header, prompting wild celebrations in Villa’s technical area.
