Well, the big day was finally here. It’s a season of high hopes and expectations for Aston Villa under manager Unai Emery, particularly in light of the improvements we saw after he replaced Screech in the 2022/23 campaign.
We have strengthened well, with face value quality signings and we’ve done it in a way that does not bring Financial Fair Play into dispute (unlike certain others) but pre season has again proven to be pre season – we were unbeaten and today, we just didn’t turn up.
Players not at the pace, Newcastle got their game plan right and for a change Emery had no answer. He was undoubtedly not helped by the injury to Emi Buendia when it came to our preparations, and we were certainly not helped by the injury sustained by Tyrone Mings in the first half.
But we were deserved losers today, and despite what we did do well in terms of the playing style our gaffer prefers, we were shoddy at both ends of the pitch and although I’m still convinced two of their goals were offside, it really doesn’t matter as we didn’t even deserve a point.
Not the start we were all hoping for, not the start we all wanted and given Emery’s demands and aspirations for the season, he will be disappointed we were off the pace.
Speaking to the Official Site following the full time whistle, the gaffer himself explained that he was definitely disappointed.
“I’m disappointed. I’m also disappointed with the two injuries we’ve had to Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia. To lose 5-1 is not good for us and we played not deserving to lose 5-1, but a lot of things happened in 90 minutes. We were playing in the first half, more or less, with the possibilities to react and come back. The second half as well we started with control of the game, but their transition was very powerful with speedy players.”
He went on to add.
“We didn’t control the last 30 minutes like we needed to do. It’s three points and we’re going to think about our reaction over the next week. We’re going to analyse the match and prepare the next match at home. Our structure was strong and our mentality was going up, and today we lost one match with a bad result and we lost two players. We’re going to stand up and recover our power.”
We’ll await news on Mings and his issue here, but I don’t doubt we’ll see a reaction in the next game as that simply was not good enough.
St James' Park
Premier League
12/08/2023 6:30 pm
Attendance: 52207
Referee: Andy Madley
| Newcastle United | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonali (6), Isak (16, 58), Wilson (77), Barnes (90+1) | Diaby (11) | ||||||
| Pope | Martinez | ||||||
| Trippier | Cash | Philogene_Bidace (87) | |||||
| Shcar | Konsa | ||||||
| Botman | Mings | Torres (31) | |||||
| Burn | Digne | ||||||
| Tonali | Anderson (90+2) | Kamara | |||||
| Bruno Guimaraes | Longstaff (85) | Douglas Luiz | |||||
| Joelinton | Bailey | Tielemans (45) | |||||
| Almiron | Murphy (86) | Diaby | Coutinho (87) | ||||
| Isak | Wilson (68) | McGinn | Diego Carlos (64) | ||||
| Gordon | Barnes (68 | Watkins | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Dubravka | Diego Carlos | 64 | |||||
| Lascelles | Tielemans | 45 | |||||
| Wilson | 68 | Torres | 31 | ||||
| Targett | Chambers | ||||||
| Barnes | 68 | Coutinho | 87 | ||||
| Livramento | Olsen | ||||||
| Murphy | 86 | Philogene-Bidace | 87 | ||||
| Anderson | 90+2 | Archer | |||||
| Longstaff | 85 | Kellyman | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 16 |
| 13 | On Target | 6 |
| 6 | Corners | 5 |
| 12 | Fouls | 17 |
| 4 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 53 | % | 47 |