The Villa appetiser: Aston Villa vs Newcastle - Match preview

Facts to sweep under the carpet

Newcastle United are unbeaten against Aston Villa in the last four meetings

Newcastle’s recent form against Villa is good, and they are unbeaten in their last four league meetings with us.

Our home form is inconsistent and Alan Pardew has managed to keep hold of an apparently revitalized Yohan Cabaye (who scored against us last season) while welcoming back players from injury.

It could be a tense fixture for the home crowd, if Newcastle also take a leaf out of Liverpool’s book and play a cautious game.

What we pray the football Gods will provide

We’ve seen how good Villa’s counter-attacking football can be away from home, but in our last home fixture, we struggled to break down a well-organised Liverpool side.

Against Newcastle, it would be great to see a controlled performance to get Villa’s home form back on track. The next few home games are important to try to get some momentum back at Villa Park, after just nine wins in the last two seasons.

These are the games Villa need to be winning if they want to be considered a top-half team this season.

Why Villa have got this game in the bag

Libor Kozak has been in good form lately

Villa have developed a welcome habit of scoring goals, which is in contrast to a Newcastle side who have failed to score in five of their last seven games.

Villa have scored in most recent Newcastle fixtures despite finding victories hard to come by, and the fact that Newcastle have only won twice in 21 away games does seem to tip things in Villa’s favour.

With Villa’s new striker Kozak scoring against Italy in the international break, let’s hope that Villa’s new-look side can overcome a Newcastle that struggled in the transfer market and that we can gain an overdue win over Newcastle.

Written by Lewis Rymond

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