3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Newcastle 3 Aston Villa 0

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The Mag

·26 de diciembre de 2024

3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Newcastle 3 Aston Villa 0

Thursday’s match ended Newcastle 3 Aston Villa 0.

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…’:

POSITIVES

Up to fifth

Just over a couple of weeks ago, Newcastle United were languishing in mid-table and without a win in our previous four outings, the season was looking decidedly uninspiring.

What a difference after today’s commanding win over Aston Villa. That’s three league wins on the bounce, with eleven goals scored and none conceded and with other games going our way, we now sit fifth in the table.

Boxing Day Blues – For Villa

Boxing Day doesn’t usually yield good results for Newcastle United and with a record 16 Premier League defeats on the day after Christmas to our name, I was a little wary before today’s encounter with Aston Villa.

In truth, I shouldn’t have been.

That was also Villa’s 16th Boxing Day Premier League defeat and so they are now joint holders of that unenviable record.

Okay, we played against ten men for an hour, but we were in control and good value for our 1-0 lead at the point Jhon Duran got his marching orders, thanks to a stupendous Anthony Gordon strike after just 90 seconds.

That’s 17 successive games without defeat when we’ve scored first, a run that stretches back to, you guessed it, Boxing Day 2023!

A settled midfield?

Joelinton returned after his one match suspension to displace Joe Willock, whilst Trippier started in place of Tino who was reportedly ill.

So not unchanged, but what is significant, is the contribution that Bruno and Sandro are now making, both undoubtedly playing their best football of the season, with Tonali sitting deeper, allowing Guimaraes to get a little further up the pitch.

Both were fantastic today, but my MOTM was big Joe, whose stellar performance on the left side of that midfield was rounded off with a piledriver that made it 3-0.

NEGATIVES

If Bruno’s ‘goal’ was correctly disallowed for handball, I’ll eat my hat.

Yet again, we have VAR sucking the enjoyment out of scoring a goal and it’s reasoning is baffling.

Profligate in attack

I keep on saying it, but when we’re in the mood, we should be scoring more.

Chance after chance went begging today and Martinez was their MOTM.

Two tough away fixtures next

I am scraping the barrel here, but we need to keep the momentum going, and our next two fixtures aren’t exactly easy.

Although it will depend on which versions of Man U, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United turn up.

Six points on the road next week would be awesome!

Newcastle 3 Aston Villa 0 – Thursday 26 December 3pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)