At A Glance
Aston Villa’s 2023/24 Premier League season begins against Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Saturday.
A trip to Tyneside comes on the back of a promising pre-season that delivered three wins and three draws, including a 3-3 thriller versus the Magpies in Philadelphia.
The summer additions of Moussa Diaby, Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres have added to the excitement ahead of Unai Emery’s first full season in charge.
Newcastle have bolstered their ranks with Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento after last season’s fourth place finish.
Eddie Howe’s team have also looked strong in their friendly fixtures, coming through seven matches unbeaten.
A 2-0 success against Fiorentina and 4-0 win over Villarreal rounded off their preparations.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa are aiming to secure consecutive Premier League wins over Newcastle for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign.
However, the Geordies are unbeaten in their 14 Premier League home games versus Villa since that season.
Villa were one of only four teams to win a league game against Newcastle last season.
Newcastle have won 71 league matches against Villa, which is more than they have against any other opponent, while the Villans are level alongside Spurs as the opponents the Magpies have beaten most often in the Premier League, claiming 24 victories.
Villa have earned 13 Premier League wins and 43 points in 2023, a figure bettered only by Manchester City. The Villans won 41 points in the whole of 2022.
Newcastle's fourth-place finish last season was their best since 2002-03, while their points total of 71 was their highest in the Premier League since 2001-02.
Callum Wilson has scored on the opening weekend in each of the last three seasons, and has netted 11 Premier League goals in the month of August since his competition debut in 2015 - only Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero, with 15 goals and 14 respectively, have better records in this period.
Aston Villa's seventh-place finish last term was their highest in the Premier League since 2009-10, while they also equalled their club record for most wins in a 38-game Premier League campaign.
Villa are aiming to avoid losing their opening league fixture in three successive seasons for the first time since 1967-68 to 1969-70. All of those defeats came in the second tier.
The Last Meeting
Moving a 3-3 draw in pre-season aside, the two teams last met in a competitive fixture back in April.
Villa were excellent on home turf, putting in one of their best performances of the season to beat the Magpies 3-0 in the Premier League.
Jacob Ramsey bagged a first half opener before Ollie Watkins netted a brace after the break.
Team News
Emi Buendía is sidelined after he suffered a significant knee ligament injury in training this week.
Aside from the Argentine, Emery will be without the services of Tim Iroegbunam, Jhon Duran, Leander Dendoncker, Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey and Bertrand Traore.
Joe Willock has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, with Emil Krafth and Javier Manquillo also ruled out.
Eddie Howe believes Fabian Schär will be fit enough to be included in the squad.
The Boss
“Starting against Newcastle is a very good challenge for us. It’s difficult and I’m very excited about how we can face the match, analysing them, the match we played in pre-season and the last two matches they played in pre-season last week. They are feeling strong at home and their objective has now changed completely from two years before. They have to be in the top four.”
Unai Emery
