St James’ Park Awaits – Newcastle vs Aston Villa Preview

Welcome to the Newcastle v Aston Villa preview
Thursday December 26 – 3 p.m.

St James’ Park are hosting a Christmas cracker live on Amazon Prime this Boxing Day as the Toon host Aston Villa in one of their choice festive fixtures.

Both teams will be looking to build on their recent success and, with neither team afraid to take a chance, this should be a battle not to be missed.

Hoping this is the perfect tonic to ease Crimbo’s tedious limbo, so grab a turkey sandwich, pour in some hairs of the dog, and cross your fingers for three more points because (to quote Mariah Carey) all we want for Christmas is Toon!

Form

In the last six league matches, Newcastle have won two, drawn one and lost two. This, however, ignores the fact that the victories came in their last two matches and ended a tremendous League Cup quarter-final victory that is once again the stuff of dreams for Wembley fans. This now makes three consecutive victories in all competitions for United with eleven goals scored and just one conceded. A Newcastle win coupled with results elsewhere could take us to fifth in the Championship, while a run of disastrous results could drop us to twelfth.

Aston Villa have won three of their last six league matches with two draws and just one defeat. Their victories all came in home matches, against Man City, Southampton and Brentford. They also found success in Europe. They haven’t won an away game in the Premier League in over two months, so fingers crossed that continues. Villa are currently in sixth place and could be anywhere between fourth and tenth depending on results elsewhere.

Last time

Newcastle obliterated Ipswich last weekend with a 4-0 win which at one point looked like it would be comparable to our 8-0 win at Sheffield United last season. Isak opened the scoring after just a few seconds and Murphy scored an incredible second to put the Toon firmly in control. When Isak made it 3-0 with a tap-in late in the first half, it looked like the points were definitely on their way to Tyneside. Isak made sure of that and grabbed a free ball as he completed his hat-trick in the second half.

Aston Villa celebrated their own victory this weekend by putting Man City to the sword 2-1. Villa were good value for the victory, taking a 2-0 lead before City snatched a late consolation.

Statistical attack!

Newcastle have won their last three home matches against Aston Villa, the most recent being a 5-1 success on the opening day of the 22/23 season.

Aston Villa have not won any of their last sixteen visits to St James’ Park! Their most recent victory came in strange circumstances against an eight-man United in 2005.

United have only lost two Premier League home matches against Villa in twenty-seven matches.

NUFC have won six of their last ten home matches with Villa in all competitions, drawing the other four.

Memorable match

When Newcastle were promoted from the Championship in 2010, there was a twist of fate for their first home game against the team that had dispatched them fifteen months earlier.

Villa fans had behaved atrociously in glorying in the demise of the NUFC, but what goes around comes around and a few thousand of them were forced to endure a lousy day as the NUFC mercilessly hammered the bad guys on the pitch and Toon fans were reveling in the score.

Goals from Barton, Nolan and Carroll put United 3-0 up at half-time and further goals from Nolan and Carroll in the second half (twice to complete a hat-trick) sealed a phenomenal 6-0 victory . Karma only bites those who behave badly and while the chant “don’t laugh anymore” echoed around St James’ Park, it would be nice to think that this applied to some outside who mocked and incited traveling Toon fans. until relegation in 2009. Final score Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa.

Played for both

Aaron Hughes made his debut for the NUFC at the Camp Nou in 1997. He stayed until signing for Villa in 2005 and almost holds the Premier League record for most appearances without ever being sent off, only Ryan Giggs with more.

Nobby Solano was a fan favorite at NUFC, scoring a number of memorable goals, my favorite being a last-minute winner at Elland Road in 2001. The free-kick specialist was sold to Villa by Sir Bobby in 2003 , then bought by Graeme Souness. in 2005 to score more crackers, including a Belter in a 1-0 win over Arsenal.

Charles N’Zogbia has scored some superb goals for NUFC, including a superb solo effort at Sunderland in a 4-1 derby success. He signed for Villa in 2011 after a spell at Wigan Athletic and spent four seasons in the claret and blue.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 4-0 away win against Ipswich:

“Absolutely delighted with the players and what they gave this week. This has been a very big week for us. Making it to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup was one of our big goals and our league form needed to improve, so brilliant to achieve back-to-back wins. We are constantly trying to tweak things and improve. There are a number of small things to improve our form. Our creative game has returned to what it has always been: free scoring and the impression that we can create at any time.

Unai Emery after a 2-1 home win over Manchester City

“We started the game trying to press hard and from the first minute we did a fantastic job. We created the first chance thanks to that. In 90 minutes you have to do more things, with and without the ball. Manchester City are a little below the confidence they normally had. The second half was different, we dominated and we scored. In these circumstances they felt even worse than in the first half.

Charity

The Newcastle United Fans’ Foodbank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate and will gratefully receive food, cash and toiletries for those in need. Non-perishable foods and drinks (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned goods, soup, cereals, syrup, long-life milk, etc.) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products are particularly interesting. Please give whatever you can, any donation is much appreciated.

For more information and/or to make an online donation, go HERE.

Prediction

Both teams are in good form and (famous last words) I can see this being a classy match.

Newcastle have been in free goal form and I hope this match provides an extra Christmas present to everyone associated with the NUFC.

We’ve scored eleven goals in our last three matches and a few more would do just fine: Newcastle 3-1 Aston Villa.