As the dust settles on Newcastle United’s disappointing 4-1 defeat at fellow Champions League qualification hopefuls Aston Villa on Saturday, any sense of impending crisis has dissipated.
Newcastle remain third in the Premier League, two points and three places above Villa with five matches remaining. Manchester City, also very much in contention, play host to Villa on Wednesday, before Newcastle welcome an Ipswich Town side looking to avoid defeat to stave off the confirmation of relegation for another week on Saturday.
It was a chastening evening at Villa Park, but hardly an atypical one. Villa’s ferocity was evident from inside the first minute when Ollie Watkins opened the scoring; Newcastle regained composure and levelled by half time, but wilted under the pressure of superior intensity and purpose by the end.
There had been plenty of expectation that it would be an exciting, close encounter between two very in-form sides. Newcastle had won each of its last six games in all competitions by an aggregate score of 17 goals to three, while Villa was looking to extend a run of five successive league wins.
But the similarity in quality has been actually been a factor in why games between the two clubs are rarely tight; since the 2022-23 season, the pattern has been for the team playing at home to roar to a very comfortable win; at St James’ Park in the last three years, Newcastle has won 4-0, 5-1 and 3-0. This victory for Villa followed on from a 3-0 success almost exactly two years prior; a 2-1 win for the Magpies at Villa Park in January 2024 was something of an outlier.
Perhaps the assumption is that two teams who are both as consistent as each other and opt to employ a high-octane style of play will cancel each other out. Yet, the opposite is true; it is a race to see which side hits its stride first and that is invariably the one with its own fans making up the majority of the attendance. Once that happens, it is difficult to stop the juggernaut.
Going out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage against Paris Saint-Germain last week could have caused problems for the home side after such a monumental effort physically and emotional in facing arguably Europe’s best team at the moment, but therein lay one of the keys to its success in the end.
Coach Unai Emery made a number of changes from that game, including starting Watkins up front in place of Marcus Rashford. This was just one example of the depth he had at his disposal, and more would prove decisive as the match progressed. Jason Tindall, Newcastle’s assistant still taking charge while Eddie Howe recovers from pneumonia in hospital, also had to contend with a match only days earlier – the 5-0 win over Crystal Palace – and picked the same eleven players for the seventh game running. The team just ran out of energy against an opponent ready to punish it.
Watkins could have had a hat-trick in the first half alone; targeting his pace against the ageing legs of 33-year-old defender Fabian Schar was just one of the marginal gains which came from Emery’s tactical victory over Tindall. The England striker was also desperate to prove his point after being left out against PSG.
Yet the victory, and margin of it, only became clear in the second half when Villa called for reinforcements. Players like Rashford, Donyell Malen and Amadou Onana were summoned; that trio have a combined market value of well over $100m, depth Newcastle simply cannot match. While Watkins took most of the plaudits, the role of Morgan Rogers in midfield was also crucial and symbolic.
Aston Villa and Newcastle’s different PSR approaches
Newcastle and Villa have been intrinsically linked over recent seasons; they are aiming for the same ambitions and playing in similar ways. Yet there are key differences to their approaches to navigating growth against Profit and Sustainability Rules and financial restrictions. Villa has sold players for big profits and bought more within its means, helping it create a more rounded, deep and well balanced squad. Rogers, for example, now an England international, cost a maximum of $21m from second division side Middlesbrough. He was a low-risk signing who has surpassed expectation; vindicating the use of less common markets.
Whereas Newcastle has spent bigger on fewer players; its squad is less populated, but contains arguably higher individual quality. The likes of Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak could play for anyone; but to offset both signing and keeping them, the club has been unable to add more players of that level for two years.
Reports are suggesting Villa may have PSR questions to answer this summer, while Newcastle has more scope to spend, while again not being forced to sell key assets. Not strengthening was a huge risk, but it hasn’t hindered the challenge to get back into the Champions League.
Villa were fitter, stronger and more flexible on Saturday and it paid off. Its long-term strategy helped beat Newcastle, but it still sits behind in the Premier League table ahead of a potentially crucial transfer window.
Lessons can be learnt from this match for Newcastle, on and off the pitch, but crucially, it still holds the key to own destiny.
