At A Glance
Aston Villa will look to get their Premier League season up and running when they host Newcastle United at Villa Park on Saturday.
Despite debutant Danny Ings opening his account for the club, the Villans lost 3-2 to Watford at Vicarage Road on the opening day.
After leading twice against West Ham at St James’ Park, Newcastle suffered the same fate as they fell to a 4-2 loss.
Villa boss Dean Smith will be hoping for a response from his charges in front of a capacity crowd at Villa Park.
In the opposition dugout, Steve Bruce returns to the club where he spent two years as manager from 2016-2018.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last six Premier League matches against Newcastle United (W2 D4) since losing 1-0 back in February 2015. Villa haven’t gone seven without defeat in the top-flight against Newcastle since winning seven in a row between 1955 and 1958.
Newcastle haven’t scored a single goal in any of their last four Premier League visits to Aston Villa (D2 L2). Their run of minutes without a top-flight goal at Villa Park stands at 377, since a Yoan Gouffran goal in a 2-1 win in September 2013.
Aston Villa won their final home game of the 2020-21 season – they last won consecutive home league games in January, with the second victory in that run coming against Newcastle.
Newcastle United won their first away league match of last season, winning 2-0 at West Ham. The Magpies last won their first away league game in consecutive seasons in 1994-95 against Leicester City and 1995-96 against Bolton Wanderers.
Aston Villa have scored exactly twice in each of their last four Premier League games, netting with both of their shots on target in their opening day defeat at Watford. The Villans last scored more than once in five consecutive top-flight games in January 2008.
Newcastle ended last season with consecutive away Premier League wins, beating Leicester City and Fulham. They haven’t won three in a row on the road in the top-flight since December 2001, beating Ipswich Town, Arsenal and Leeds United under Sir Bobby Robson.
Newcastle have won just two of their last 18 Premier League games in August (D6 L10), beating West Ham at home in 2017 and Tottenham away in 2019.
Callum Wilson has scored three goals in his last two Premier League games for Newcastle, including opening the scoring in their 4-2 defeat to West Ham on MD1. However, Wilson hasn’t faced an opponent more times without scoring in the Premier League than Aston Villa (5 games).
Newcastle’s Joe Willock scored in each of his last seven Premier League appearances at the end of 2020-21. He could become just the fourth different player to score in eight consecutive Premier League games, after Ruud van Nistelrooy (twice), Jamie Vardy (twice) and Daniel Sturridge.
The Last Meeting
Newcastle United pegged Aston Villa back in stoppage time as a tight Premier League contest ended all square at St James’ Park in March.
Former Villan Ciaran Clark was credited with an own goal when he deflected Ollie Watkins’ diving header past his own goalkeeper after 86 minutes.
And with a matter of seconds left in the game, Jamaal Lascelles powered a header past Emiliano Martinez to snatch a point for the Magpies.
Team News
Dean Smith revealed at his pre-match press conference that he doesn’t expect Ollie Watkins to be fit after he missed the opening game of the season.
Bertrand Traore is also set for a spell on the sidelines after picking up a hamstring injury.
Newcastle boss Steve Bruce says he’s likely to be without Jonjo Shelvey and captain Jamaal Lascelles for the visit to Villa Park, while new signing Joe Willock will be in their squad.
He also confirmed Freddie Woodman will continue in goal with Martin Dubravka and Karl Darlow both sidelined.
The Boss
They’ve got some really good offensive players and I think we saw that last weekend against West Ham, who look like they’ve continued their form from last season. Callum Wilson’s a threat, Allan Saint-Maximin’s a threat, Miguel Almiron’s a threat, so they’ve got a lot of threatening players. Defensively, we have to make sure that we’re sound. We need to play with a lot better rest defending than we did last week. If we do that, we’ve got attacking players who can score goals.
Dean Smith
