Some wins are a little bit lucky and others downright fluky or simply ground out, but this Aston Villa victory belonged to a different category entirely.
A triumph secured by goals from the impressive Emiliano Buendía and Ollie Watkins, and illuminated by Morgan Rogers’s skill, was firmly of the sort that can be filed under “thoroughly deserved”.
Much of Villa’s attacking play was so fluid, fluent and gloriously improvisational that, by comparison, Newcastle looked as if they were engaged in a footballing equivalent of painting by numbers.
While Unai Emery’s team tightened their grip on third place and, having drawn level on points with second-placed Manchester City, cannot be ruled out of title contention, Eddie Howe’s side were left stuck in ninth.
If their hopes of a top‑four finish are not quite extinguished, all the indications are that Newcastle are unlikely to be returning to the Champions League next season.
“It’s a missed opportunity for us,” said Howe, whose team have an all-important European date at Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night. “IIt’s a big disappointment. It’s frustrating. Our crossing was poor.”
Howe employs so many analysts these days that there is a suspicion Newcastle have become a little too formulaic, a bit overly data driven.
Here the off-the-cuff brilliance of Rogers and Buendía in particular made the difference on a day when consistently intelligent defending from Ezri Konsa and company, not to mention some excellent goalkeeping on Emiliano Martínez’s part, also proved pivotal.
Granted, Newcastle might have taken an early lead had Martínez, making his 200th Premier League appearance, not done extremely well to deny Sandro Tonali with an outstretched foot. Nick Pope, though, was soon performing similar wonders to divert a Watkins shot away for a corner after Jadon Sancho’s fine through pass.
Pope, though, had no answer to Buendía’s swerving, dipping and thoroughly stunning opening goal dispatched from just outside the area after a lovely team move featuring, inevitably, a pivotal contribution from Rogers.
Villa had conceded 12 goals on their previous three visits to St James’ Park alone and were without a win here since 2005 but, as they played through Newcastle almost at will in the first half, this felt different. “My players were extraordinary,” Emery said. “The individual and collective discipline was so high.”
Although Martínez was again required to excel when saving Lewis Miley’s header following Anthony Gordon’s cross, a home midfield lacking the injured Bruno Guimarães struggled to help subdue Rogers’s disorientating change of pace and sheer invention in possession.
This was only the 11th top‑tier game Guimarães had missed since arriving from Lyon four years ago and, ominously for Howe, Newcastle have won none of them. “Bruno was a big miss for us,” the home manager said. “He’s the focal point for a lot of our buildups; we missed his ability to pass forwards.”
There is a chance the Brazilian’s injured ankle will have healed in time for the trip to Paris but that was of little consolation here – particularly on a day when Joelinton needed to temper his aggression after collecting an early yellow card and Tonali, although influential, did not have things all his own way against the similarly smart Youri Tielemans.
It all dictated that the invitations presented by Emery’s sometimes riskily high defensive line were not being accepted by Yoane Wissa and friends.
When Joelinton succumbed to a groin injury early in the second half, he was replaced by a Villa old boy, Jacob Ramsey. “It was a big blow to lose Joelinton,” Howe said. “We hope it’s not too serious.”
At least Ramsey played quite well, his arrival coinciding with a mini home resurgence. Were Villa starting to feel the effects of their flight back from Istanbul in the early hours of Friday morning after a Europa League win at Fenerbahce? Was the absence of the key midfielders John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara with knee injuries hurting them as much as feared?
Perhaps and possibly, but Pope still needed to prove equal to a curling, counterattacking shot from Rogers and Howe felt it necessary to replace the underwhelming Wissa and Gordon with Nick Woltemade and Anthony Elanga.
Not that it ultimately changed much. Watkins’s pace and movement had troubled Newcastle all game and, shortly after forcing Pope into a stellar save, he scored Villa’s second.
Hitherto, the principal visiting threat had been menacing long‑range shots but Villa’s second goal derived from a set piece. Or more specifically, Newcastle’s failure to clear a corner. The ball eventually dropped to Lucas Digne and his half‑volley across the box was met by Watkins’s diving header, prompting wild celebrations.
“I am so, so happy,” Emery said. “My players were fantastic.”
