Newcastle 3-0 Aston Villa - The perfect end to 2024 at St. James’ Park!

A festive run to remember for Newcastle United as we made it four wins on the spin in emphatic fashion against Aston Villa.

An Anthony Gordon curler within 90 seconds and Joelinton thumper in the 90th minute came either side of yet another goal for Alexander Isak as Villa played most of the match with 10 men.

It was a controlled, commanding, clinical and classy performance, and a result that sends us above Villa and Man City, six clear of Spurs and up to fifth, capping off a perfect end to 2024 at St James’ Park in league and cup.

Tonali was outstanding once again in that deeper role - he sweeps up everything and is so slick in possession - Bruno continued to excel in that No.8 role, Trippier was a constant calm head at right-back and both centre-backs dealt with everything, with Burn in particular getting his foot or head to anything that came close to Dubravka’s box, making it just one goal conceded in our last four. In that time, we’ve also scored 14, showing the perfectly timed improvement at both ends since that 4-2 defeat at Brentford earlier this month.

Joelinton also deserves huge praise. He was at it from the off to set up Gordon’s opener and rounded off a dominant display with a stunner of his own. Gordon was lively at both ends and Murphy’s latest assist means only Salah and Saka have more in the league this season!

Howe made two changes, seeing Joelinton and Kieran Trippier come in for Joe Willock and Tino Livramento; who was absent from the squad through illness.

The first half started with a bang and stunning finish from Gordon, who was released by Joelinton before cutting in from the left and curling a beauty past Martinez and into the far corner. The quality of the strike was there for all to see, but it was Tonali who won the ball back seconds before Joelinton broke free. 

Villa had a period of pressure in a tight first 45 full of fouls and a fascinating midfield battle, but Emery’s plan to get back into it was  detailed by Duran, who saw for a stamp on Schar half an hour in. The last time Villa beat us at St James’ was way back in 2005 where Bowyer and Dyer had that infamous scrap, but it was the away side who were missing a man here with an hour to play!

After that came a flurry of chances as we looked to capitalise on our man advantage. Following Joelinton’s disallowed goal where Isak couldn’t quite keep the ball in play, a world class save from Martinez stopped Tonali from making it 2-0 after brilliant work from Bruno.

So far so good in a first half that saw Gordon and Hall combine well at both ends, Tonali sweep up superbly and Joelinton make his presence felt against a tough Villa midfield who had it all to do in the final 45.

Trippier’s composure and know-how was noticeable and both centre-backs were winning their duels, but had Watkins to think about as Emery made a half time change. Isak and Murphy had been quiet to this point, although they’d be hoping for space to exploit if and when 10-man Villa pushed for a way back into it…and they got exactly that.

After a controlled start to the second half, Murphy and Isak combined to make it 2-0. Bruno’s clever ball set Murphy in behind down the right and he delivered his sixth assist of the season to set up a tap in for Isak, who almost made it 3-0 before VAR disallowed our second of the match.

Trippier was a class act, especially in the second half, and he showed his defensive instincts to cut out what could’ve been a big back post chance for Watkins. He started so many attacks down the right, showed real composure throughout and always seemed to do the right thing with minimal fuss.

Three changes then followed as Barnes, Willock Targett came on for Murphy, Gordon and Trippier, who clearly couldn’t continue. With Tino ill, hopefully it was just cramp.

Bruno thought he’d made it 3-0 but VAR made it a hat-trick of disallowed goal after the ball rebounded in off his arm. However, another Brazilian was not to be denied later on, as Joelinton hammered in a beauty from 18 yards after an awful Onana giveaway.

Isak and Bruno came off with a few minutes to go, giving Osula and Miley some minutes in the closing stages as we “Ole’d” our way to a comfortable 3-0 win.

Next up, Man Utd away on Monday in our final game of 2024 before a trip to Spurs a week on Saturday.

NUFC XI: Dubravka; Trippier, Schar, Burn, Hall; Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.

Subs: Vlachodimos, Barnes, Willock, Osula, Kelly, Targett, Almiron, Miley, Longstaff.

HWTL!