3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1

In partnership with

The Mag

·19 April 2025

3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1

Saturday’s match ended Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1.

Ahead of each match we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the game.

OneFootball Videos

Plenty to talk about after this one.

On this occasion it is ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey…’:

After the past several weeks, that was hard to watch, with a 4-1 defeat probably a fair reflection of proceedings at Villa Park.

We looked out of sorts from the get go and Nick Pope had to fish the ball out the back of his net inside the first minute.

After Fabian Schar headed us level, we were all square at the interval and I was thinking; “if we don’t lose, that’ll be a tremendous outcome”.

After the restart, Villa began to really impose themselves and we were blown away in a ten minute spell midway through the second half when we conceded three times.

Very disappointing, so let’s say it was a bad day at the office, dust ourselves down and move on.

Still third

We’ve been on a hell of a run and as they say, all good things have to come to an end.

Losing at Villa is hard to take but if our end of season objective is to qualify for the Champions League, we’re still in a great position.

It could have been worse

We weren’t at the races and Villa exploited that to maximum effect.

After a week where we’d improved our goal difference immeasurably, we can perhaps take heart from the fact that we kept the arrears to only three.

Keep the faith

Whatever happens between now and the end of the season, it has been the best in my time supporting Newcastle United and I’m pretty sure there’ll be many in agreement.

Ripped to shreds in a six pointer

This Newcastle United side is made of sterner stuff isn’t it?

Games we used to lose, we no longer capitulate in, right?

Well, we did today. And against a side who had a lot to prove having been dumped out of the Champions League in midweek.

Time and again, Villa caused us problems, scoring four, hitting the woodwork three times and requiring Nick Pope to make a string of saves.

It doesn’t help when you score two goals for the opposition mind!

It wasn’t just the right side that was all wrong

Jacob Murphy for England after that display?

I thought he was poor today, after a fortnight where he’s been rightly getting all the plaudits.

Trippier was also out of sorts and Villa took full advantage, as our right hand side looked lightweight and very open to exploitation.

Having said that, I don’t think anyone in green and white had a particularly good game.

Tonali looked a shadow of his recent self, Guimaraes seemed determined to get a yellow (and duly succeeded), whilst the back four looked leggy and was constantly stretched.

The referee was terrible as well, however, we can’t put such a poor performance down to his equally poor officiating.

Missing Eddie

Get well soon Eddie.

Jason Tindall has overseen comprehensive wins against Man Utd and Crystal Palace but came up short against Unai Emery, who to be fair, is a master tactician and had called this Villa’s biggest game of the season.

Unlike Newcastle United, Villa set their stall out like it really mattered and we couldn’t cope.

Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1 – Saturday 19 April 2025 5.30pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Schar 18

Villa

Watkins 1 Maatsen 64, Burn OG 73, Onana 75

Possession was Newcastle 51% Villa 49%

Total shots were Newcastle 10 Villa 23

Shots on target were Newcastle 3 Villa 9

Corners were Newcastle 7 Villa 7

Touches in the box Newcastle 36 Villa 31