Game Details
Game: Newcastle vs Aston Villa
Date: Wednesday 24th June
Competition: Premier League
Venue: St James Park
Kick-off: 6pm
At a Glance
Aston Villa make the journey north to St James Park to take on Newcastle on Wednesday night.
Two games into the Premier League’s resumption, Dean Smith’s side have picked up one point from home games against Sheffield United and Chelsea.
A narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea left Villa 19th in the table, one point adrift of safety.
Managed by former Villa boss Steve Bruce, Newcastle resumed Premier League action with a 3-0 victory against Sheffield United on Sunday.
Second half goals from Allan Saint-Maximin, Matt Ritchie and Joelinton took the Magpies up to 13th in the standings.
When the two sides met earlier in the season, Villa triumphed 2-0 thanks to goals from Conor Hourihane and Anwar El Ghazi.
Newcastle United up next...
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) June 23, 2020
🎯 @ConorHourihane 🎯#AVFC pic.twitter.com/vEyaQ1FhHK
Head-to-Head
Aston Villa and Newcastle have met on 164 occasions, dating back to their first game in 1895.
Villa have won 56 times, drawn 37 and lost 71 games against the Magpies.
Standout Stats
Following their 2-0 win at Villa Park in the reverse fixture, Aston Villa are looking to complete the Premier League double over Newcastle for the first time since 2004-05.
Newcastle have failed to win 23 of their last 26 midweek Premier League matches (W3 D10 L13), with all those three victories coming consecutively in 2019.
Newcastle United are looking to win three consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since November 2018. Manager Steve Bruce hasn’t won three top-flight games in a row since January 2009 with Wigan Athletic, a run of four consecutive wins.
SB: "Aston Villa have got some very good players, particularly Grealish and McGinn. We'll have to be at our best to beat them but we're feeling confident, and you can see people bouncing into the training ground [after the weekend]." pic.twitter.com/2RcvhQ00YS
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) June 23, 2020
Team News
Every Aston Villa player to feature in the past two games has come through unscathed and Smith’s team may be boosted by the return of Frederic Guilbert.
The full-back is training again and is in contention to feature in the North-East. Meanwhile, Bjorn Engels, Wesley and Tom Heaton are all ruled out.
At his pre-match press conference, Newcastle boss Bruce confirmed that Matty Longstaff and Florian Lejeune had returned to training.
Sean Longstaff and Ciaran Clark are managing injuries ahead of the match.
The Boss
"The fact we've only got one point out of the two games makes it a really important game, Newcastle had a very good result on Sunday so we have to make sure that we're at our best.
"I think if our performance levels are good then we've got a good chance.
"He (Steve Bruce, Newcastle boss) will control what he can control, Steve is very experienced and he's been around the game for a long time.”
