There wasn’t to be any late festive cheer for Aston Villa on Boxing Day, as we fell to a 3-0 defeat to Newcastle Utd at St James’ Park.
Goals from Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak and Joelinton sealed all three points for the hosts, with Jhon Duran’s first-half sending off proving to be a pivotal moment in the encounter.
READ MORE: Aston Villa player ratings vs Newcastle: Duran red card decisive in defeat
Villa’s focus will now switch to Brighton at home on Monday night, but it was a disappointing way to follow up our win over Manchester City last weekend, as consistency will be a critical challenge for us this season.
Early goal a disappointing, significant setback
After producing such an impressively disciplined and organised defensive effort against Man City, Villa were undone in less than two minutes by Newcastle on Thursday.
Whether it was Matty Cash losing Gordon and being unable to close him down quickly enough or a miscommunication on defensive assignments as the Newcastle ace cut inside and had time and space aplenty to get his shot off, it wasn’t good enough from our perspective.
Ezri Konsa conceded in his post-match interview that it was ‘demoralising’ to concede so early, and that gave us more work to do in an already difficult assignment.
Duran red card effectively killed our hopes of comeback
While there was a sense that there was still a pathway for us to get something from this game even with 10 men, it ultimately proved to be the case that Duran’s red card was a negatively defining point in the contest.
Villa didn’t really threaten from that point onwards, and it could have been a lot worse had Newcastle been more clinical in front of goal.
The debate will rage on over whether or not it was worthy of a straight red card, but when the likes of Eddie Howe and Alan Shearer are conceding that it was probably harsh, it was a contentious moment that proved to be very costly for us.
Defensive standard not up to level set last weekend
As noted above, we were so good defensively against Man City, as each player not only understood their respective assignments perfectly, but we were disciplined, focused and organised for the entire 90+ minutes as a collective.
That was the standard that we need to match on a consistent basis, but that wasn’t on display for all three of Newcastle’s goals. From the breakdown to give Gordon so much time and space for the first, to the ease with which Newcastle played through us for their second and the mistake from Amadou Onana for the third, all three goals were disappointing.
Having a solid defensive base gives our attacking players the platform to go out and win games with their quality, and so the last two games have clearly shown the importance of Villa having control and being able to impose ourselves in games as our midfield wasn’t as physically dominant in this one either.
Valuable minutes and rest in latter stages
Things eventually started to look as though they might get out of hand, and so it was important that Emery was able to make changes to not only protect certain key individuals, but give valuable minutes to others.
Seeing Kosta Nedeljkovic, Ross Barkley and Leon Bailey get significant run-outs was a positive, while Emiliano Buendia managed to get a few minutes too as he continues to try and get back up to full speed.
It’s hardly the ideal scenario in which for that to happen given we were 2-0 down and out of the game, but it hopefully proves to be important in the weeks ahead when Emery needs to make changes, such as with Cash now being suspended for our next outing.
Response needed at home vs Brighton
Our away form has been poor in recent weeks, and so it comes as a relief that our next game, and the two that follow, are all at home.
Emery and the players have shown that they can respond to setbacks as we put together a great run of results after an eight-game winless streak, and so we’ll have to draw on that experience again to ensure that this isn’t the start of another dip.
Brighton will naturally pose another big test, but hopefully we won’t see a repeat of the decisive moments that marred our visit to Newcastle, and we can get back to winning ways immediately to wrap up the year on a positive note.
