On a day where many of the headlines involved incidents outside St James’ Park, Newcastle avoided a potential banana skin courtesy of their top goalscorer Papiss Cisse, who’s first half strike helped his side overcome a poor Aston Villa side – spiraling into peril and towards the Championship.
Many fans saw this as the mocking of May 2009 coming full circle, after the gestures of fans at Villa Park that day were seemed spiteful and in bad taste. It was as if Villa were taking responsibility for sending Newcastle down, and almost proudly so. The roar of 43,000 inside Villa Park at the final whistle, on that day, was reminiscent to a side that had just one the FA Cup but, instead, they were celebrating the condemnation of their Premier League rivals – with no particular history between the two sides. Banners that read “Sob on the Tyne” and “Who’s your next messiah, Ant or Dec?” were displayed that day.
Six years on, Aston Villa now find themselves on the same end of the same shtick they dished out, with very little sympathy from the Geordie faithful.
Carver made changes in personnel and formation, from the 5-0 humiliation at The Etihad last weekend, with Mehdi Abeid, Sammy Ameobi, Gabriel Obertan and Emmanuel Riviere replacing the under-performing Vurnon Anita, Yoan Gouffran, Ayoze Perez (who was in desperate need of a rest) and the suspended Jack Colback. Jonas Gutierrez returned to the Newcastle bench for the first time since October 2013.
Villa meanwhile lined up with a front three of Agbonlahor, Benteke and loanee Scott Sinclair, looking to expose Newcastle’s frail back four with pace and counter attacking.
The match started as an expected scrappy affair, much like the reverse fixture at Villa Park. Villa looking for a result after 6 successive defeats, and Newcastle stumbling towards a steady mid table finish.
The first chance of the match fell to the visitors, Agbonlahor finding the net after a quarter of an hour, only to be correctly pulled back for offside. A couple of minutes later, Rivière found himself with a clear run from a Sammy Ameobi corner, only to mis-time it and ultimately let the chance go by. Christian Benteke would then attempt an audacious overhead kick down the Gallowgate, Krul denying the Belgian with a one handed diving save.
After 39 minutes, Newcastle would make the breakthrough. A cross from the right by Janmaat would land at Papiss Cisse’s feet, for him to coolly finish and celebrate with Jonas in the dugout. This was Cisse’s 11th goal of the season, who’s now two away from matching his best tally in a single Premier League campaign.
The second half again failed to inspire Villa to come rushing out the gates, determined to save their Premier League status. Tom Cleverley had an audacious effort well dealt with by Krul, but found it difficult to breakdown Newcastle’s back line. Mike Williamson’s 18 clearances being key to this, the most by any player in the Premier League that day.
Villa had the ball in the back in the net for a second time. A whipped cross from the left by Ashley Westwood was met by Benteke, but once again correctly called for offside. Benteke has now gone 9 matches without a goal.
Substitute Ayoze Perez came closest to doubling Newcastle’s advantage, hitting the post from another Sammy Ameobi corner from an acute angle. The native Tenerife forward looked much more fresh in the last 20 minutes of this match than he has for the rest of 2015. Substitute Ryan Taylor had a free kick and another effort tipped around the post by Brad Guzan well too.
One final effort in the dying embers of the match from old boy Charles N’Zogbia failed to trouble Tim Krul, sailing high and wide of goal.
Villa have now gone 8 matches since last beating Newcastle. Having scored just 3 goals in their last 12 matches, Villa seem destined for dropping out of the Premier League. Nothing short of a miraculous turnaround ala Sunderland last season can save the Villains now.
There were no banners presented about Messiah’s from Villa fans this time, only one of acceptance of their fate – ‘Too Little, Too Late, Lerner Out’.
Whilst Massadio Haidara was stretchered off, Carver claims it was simply a ‘precaution’ and will be OK for Man United on Wednesday night. That said, Ryan Taylor seemed to bring an instant difference with his presence at both ends of the pitch, and would happily see him start on Wednesday night.
News is still awaited on the struggling Yoan Gouffran, who picked up a knock after coming on as our final sub.
