Newcastle United face Aston Villa at St James’ Park this weekend as they look to bounce back from the haunting 4-1 defeat away at Coventry City.
Whenever the Magpies and Villains play each other, it seems to end in a battering one way or another. The scoreline may not always reflect it but, for the most part, close games just don’t really happen in this fixture and, unfortunately for Newcastle, that could be a big problem this time around.
That is because, whilst Villa haven’t exactly started this season on fire, their recent results have seen a massive upturn in their early season form. Perhaps nothing was more exemplary of exactly that than their 6-0 win over Fenerbahce in the Champions League last night.
As always seems to happen with this club, Newcastle are playing Aston Villa at the worst possible time… SHOCK.
Newcastle’s negativity
The feel around the club coming into this one isn’t the most positive. Two back-to-back drubbings away from home, a good few noticeable senior injuries, and a hierarchy who seem hell-bent on modernising every last bit of the club, largely to the fans’ dismay.
Matthias Jaissle and his ‘vertical’ approach are currently shrouded in fan concern and, whilst we are by no means reaching panic stations just yet, this weekend feels like quite a big one to get a result from.
Coming back to St James’ Park to play in front of a fanbase who aren’t exactly feeling too confident right now, Jaissle will be desperately hoping for a quick start and to see some big improvement on the shortcomings faced last week, or I fear the game could get away from us before we know it.
Villa’s upturn
Villa have recovered from an awful start to win three and draw one of their last four competitive games, with a mid-international break friendly also going their way against Sevilla.
Emery’s side actually had almost this exact scenario last season before going on a ridiculous run and finding themselves not far off the title fight prior to Christmas. If that tells us anything, it’s that Villa’s momentum will be difficult to stop.
Whilst the performances and results had been getting better for Villa, they still weren’t quite hitting that top gear. That was until last night.
Six unanswered goals on home soil as the Birmingham side put their Turkish opponents to the sword.
Two goals for Nicolas Jackson took his tally to five in eight across all competitions for the season and a goal for Manzambi made it four goal contributions in five games for the 21-year-old.
That is frankly the last thing the Magpies needed before facing them on Saturday.
The feeling around the game
Villa will no doubt be licking their chops at the thought of travelling to St James’ this weekend. With their confidence skyrocketing and facing a side who, thus far, have been leaving ample gaps to exploit - something which Unai Emery will be sure to take full advantage of - all of those goals scored midweek will only serve as further proof that they can get at Jaissle’s side.
While I’m not suggesting Newcastle will be scared, it does feel as though the Magpies will be well aware of how big their task is on Saturday given all of the circumstances I have mentioned.
If Jaissle is to ensure his side get anything from the game he simply has to implement a more sturdy structure. Playing in transition is all well and good but Villa will come aggressive, have players who can exploit those massive spaces in central areas that we saw against Coventry and beyond, and have a watertight tactical gameplan created by their Spanish gaffer to combat Newcastle’s strengths.
Newcastle will need to be better on the ball. Losing it in the sort of areas they have been so far this season would be suicide against a side like Villa and those sorts of mistakes are sure to get the crowd on their back.
Against Coventry, we did see the Magpies create a lot more chances than they have previously, which bodes well, but they simply have to be more clinical to finish off those opportunities, especially considering we already know how many shots Newcastle concede.
If the Magpies can get their gameplan right and approach the fixture with the bit between their teeth after what happened on Monday, then there will be chances to keep Villa on the back foot and get the crowd involved. But with Villa’s current form, there is no room for silly error and Jaissle’s men will have to be on it from minute one or it will be an uphill battle.
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