Game On! Aston Villa v Newcastle

Villa Park
Villa Park
It’s back to work for both sets of players as both Newcastle United and Aston Villa look to bounce back from recent disappointing results.

It’s 17th versus 16th this evening at Villa Park as both sides eye three points that will drop the other deeper into the mire.

Neither side has been getting results and neither side is full of confidence although a recent spate of new signings at United seems to have added some renewed energy into the mix. Whether that will be enough tonight remains to be seen but United need the three points ahead of fixtures against Chelsea and Tottenham where, if you go by the form book at least, it would appear unlikely that we’d get anything from those games. Stranger things have happened though…

Up to four new faces could be making their debut for Newcastle tonight. Moussa Sissoko is likely to play but the rest may have to make do with a spot on the bench before making an appearance. However a bench with Yoan Gouffran, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Massadio Haidara gives us infinitely more options than what we’ve had recently. As always, full team news will be added in at the bottom of this article as and when it becomes available.

Unfortunately we aren’t on TV either, at least not here in the UK anyway, which means that a lot of people are going to be after a stream of the game. Not one to encourage this behaviour of course, but I can’t really stop people posting links to good streams in the ‘comments’ section below. Ahem…

Which just about wraps it up. It will be interesting to see how our new faces do this evening although I’m hopeful that the team as a whole decides to turn up tonight. Time is running out and we need to average over a point a game (1.267 actually) to make sure we hit that supposedly magical 40 point mark that is deemed as enough to keep a team safe from relegation.

Howay the lads!

Aston Villa: Guzan; Clark, Vlaar (c) Baker; Lowton, Westwood, Bannan, N’Zogbia, Bennett; Benteke, Bent

Subs:Given, Lichaj, Holman, Bowery, Ireland, Agbonlahor, Weimann.

Newcastle: Krul; Debuchy, S.Taylor, Coloccini (c), Santon; Perch, Cabaye; Gouffran, Sissoko, Gutierrez; Cisse.

Subs:Harper, Yanga-Mbiwa, Williamson, Bigirimana, Anita, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

490 thoughts on “Game On! Aston Villa v Newcastle

  1. I think in a race between Gabby and Gabby 😳 …Start again… I think in a race between Obertoon and Agbonlahor, our guy would win, so clearly Agbonlahor is not the quickest, is he. 😎

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  2. @ B&B

    I cant remember them having one a solid attack down Santon’s side. Debuchy was solid in the first half and in the 2nd half as you say came up against one of the fastest players in the league (who seem to play well for a change)

    Totally agree on the Jonas issue. He is garbage.

    Obertan on the other hand can at least receive and hold up the ball. If he was on tonight they could never push that high up the pitch. One ball over the top and Obertan is away.

    I would prefer Ben Arfa to be back or to play three at the back but with neither of those options i would take Obertan every day of the week.

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  3. Kev says, “Santon should play left side mid in place of Jonas and our new left back should be given a go, Santon worries me at the back, ok going forward.”

    I don’t think Santon’s a full back. He worries me too. I’ve wondered before whether he’d be better suited at centre back or wide midfield.

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  4. Will improve the side no end on Saturday by replacing Jonas with Marvauex and Perch with Anita.

    We have the big mo!!!

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  5. Santii – Santon goes AWOL so often and it nearly cost us tonight.

    Debuchy looked half a yard off the pace, and that was typified by the penalty. Hopefully he’ll get used to the league and can find it in his locker.

    Obertan is so frustrating. I hope Gouffran’s performance wasn’t a flash in the pan because he looks an intelligent footballer, something Obertan will never be. Run Forest Run! 😆

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  6. Rodz – We hate wearing hats but have to for work. Did you ever see us take that piano up 100 flights of stairs or demolish that boat? 😳

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  7. When Obertoon is running off the ball at top speed it is just scary. I know people call him ‘the alien’, maybe he isn’t human. 😛

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  8. “We need another CF without a doubt as Shola won’t get us the goals needed to stay up if Cisse gets injured. I know we were missing Marv and Benny as forward options but we need a goal scorer – even if its nicking Graham off the Scum.” Sharpy, spot on. It’s a major worry.

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  9. You have to agree Obertan offers alot more than Jonas 😀 That doe’snt have to be much really.

    I liked Gouffran tonight aswell don’t think he lost the ball once and put two good crosses in early in the game. Cant wait to see this team with Ben Arfa back in the line-up.

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  10. @463 – I was that B&B you both hired out for your Milliner tour of Bognor Regis 1927. Canny payout on the insurance like.

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  11. It didn’t take Pardew long to stamp his style on the team. He’s now got the new lads familiar with the pardew way of playing: bamboozled by the half time team talk and tactics, then sitting on the bench watching shola demonstrate how it’s meant to be done.

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  12. Rodz – Most weeks Stone says to Carver: “Well, here’s another nice bucket of suds you’ve gotten me into!” 😯

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  13. Lol just read Villa got a standing ovation 😀

    From what i seen there was about 10 Villa fans there at the final whistle.

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  14. B&B@469
    Agreed mate. 2-0 up and coasting at half time. But Pardew wasn’t pleased with that, oh no… We had to scrape home by the seat of our pants. :mrgreen:

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  15. Great result tonight. !

    F@@@@n magic! 😛

    Well done Pards!

    Those 3 points were absolutely huge. It matters not what the second half performance was about it was the result.

    Lets get behind Pardew. And give the regime some credit for the buys they’ve done this window.

    4 months too late in my opinion but hopefully The Regime are learning from the reality train. 😉

    The pessimists get in the cattle cart. 😆

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  16. Maybe Pardew should try to give us more reasons to get behind him?
    He could start by not picking Jonas irrespective of how poorly he plays. He could then follow that up by demonstrating some tactical substitutions that actually make a positive difference to our play rather than leaving us hanging on by the skin of our teeth.

    At half time Villa came out with the bit between their teeth. A vast improvement. When is Pardew going to start having the same effect on our team?

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  17. Hardly a masterchef performance by Pards, but the first half was cordon bleu-ish, maybe cordon azure, or at least hinted at it. I was spitting chips (McCains crinkle cuts) by the end. But the soufle rose and we all had a jolly good meal. 😆 😆 😆

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  18. the kid at 418 i watched him quite alot last season he was part of a very good team 😉

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  19. I disagree that we should get unanimously behind Pardew.

    The second half substitutions and the overall tactic in the second half were purely down to him. Ditto the lack of logical formation for the last 30 minutes. Everyone in the universe knows that a team starts the game quickly in the second half, but not wor lot. Caught with there pants down, and let’s be honest when they pumped up the volume several of our players were struggling to keep up with them. Still worrying times as far as I’m concerned, Pardew’s tactics and the inability of several of our players to see out the full 95 minutes of an EPL being one of the biggest worries for me. The second half we just lost the ability to retain the ball in our midfield.

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  20. Surprised by all this jonas bashing – he won MoM from the independent – Villa saw him as a danger and were constantly fouling him 2nd half – if people on here had actually played football at a decent level you would actually see how much work he puts in off the ball tracking runs etc – agree he’s not giving much going forward but not surprised goofy was subbed instead of jonas – goofy was fooked anyway and totally out the game 2nd half as was Sissoko
    Shola however ???

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  21. Munich – Why is it Pardews fault that Villa came flying out of the traps in the 2nd half? They were at home and 0-2 down to their relegation rivals – of course they were going to give it a go! They only got back into it after a very dubious penalty in my opinion.

    If we’d have gone on the attack at 0-2 and got caught on the counter you would have complained about him then also – he cannot win!

    I suppose nothing less than a 3-0 win on Saturday then will do… Unfortunately we know Chelsea are one of the better teams and there will be spells in the game were they have possession and we are defending – it doesn’t mean Pardew will have sent them out to defend.

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  22. SteveP
    From what I saw Jonas couldn’t control the ball or make a decent pass all game. Made a great block at the end but I felt it was one of his worst performances. That whole left side was poor, Santon has been below par for about a month.

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  23. Stuart79, I didn’t say it was Pardew’s fault that Villa came flying out of the traps. I said that it was to be expected, however, Pardew didn’t or couldn’t change the tactical formation of his line up, conceded the midfield, made some poor tactical substitutions and invited Villa to take the game to us. I think the fact that Jonas IS all over the pitch that may be the problem, this constant changing wings confuses his teammates. Our midfield couldn’t get anywhere near the ball in the second half. We are still way too brittle in midfield and up front. There is still a long way to go before we are safe.

    The difference between the first half and second half performance was eye opening.

    Don’t misunderstand me, I’m ecstatic with the three points, but I’m far from convinced with our tactics. We could easily have lost the game yesterday, from a position of embarasing ascendency. The first half we were brilliant, but we never had a sniff at goal in the second half, Villa are absolutely garbage but they battered us into submission in the second half. The central defence performed heroically under the onslaught.

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  24. Andymag, I hope that we will crawl over the finish line this season and retain our place in the EPL. However it is really worrying how we lose our way, both tactically and strength wise in the second half of games. Our fitness seems to only stretch to keeping teams at bay, going forward we contribute very little.

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  25. Arsenal and Newcastle have missed out on the signing of French starlet Florian Thauvin after he opted to join Lille.

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  26. The thing that puzzled me was Pardews choice of subs sitting on the bench . After the reading game he comes out with the kids have been thrown in too early and i dont have a strong enough bench ,the squad is weak and all that .So what does he do ?picks Bigi and Sammy too sit on the bench and leaves out Marveaux and Obertan , who are the most expirenced 2 out of that lot ❓ 🙄

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  27. Jeez

    We won and people are still whinging. 😯

    Do those who are whinging really expect us to play controlled football for 90 mins and not expect the home side to get a chance? 🙄

    @Begas

    Sounds a nice meal Pardeiu cooked for you.
    Compliments to the chef and tips to the waiters.
    Everyone’s happy. 😉

    Watch you don’t fart and belch on the way out of the restaurant as the Indonesian islands have just got over the last hurricane! 😛

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  28. Troy, did you enjoy the first half, probably yes.

    Did you enjoy the second half ?

    A win is a win, we are all happy and relieved about that.

    Did you enjoy the way we got steamrolled in the second half, and Pardew’s attempts to combat that ?

    Yeah we won, but I’m still whingeing 🙂

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  29. It would be whingeing if the second half shambles was a one off this season. Or if players who offer the team nothing were only picked on this occasion. Or if the confused, ineffective substitutions had only happened in this particular game.
    Unfortunately that’s not the case. These things have become a frequent occurrence. If everyone just pretends its a one off because we’ve finally won a game, then really they are just ignoring the obvious.

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