Aston Villa make the trip up from the Midlands to take on Eddie Howe’s Fourth Place Mags in a 3pm kick-off at St James’ Park on Saturday.
As I said in the Lineup Prediction, Villa come to Newcastle without a manager in place having sacked Steven Gerrard after he was found to be stealing a living as a football manager. Unai Emery has agreed to take the helm, but seemingly he didn’t want to start off his reign with a defeat so he said he’d take over after the Newcastle match. He probably didn’t want to face the grief he’d have got from the Toon Army after turning down the job last year before Eddie Howe took over. (By the way: Thanks, Unai. Sincerely).
Villa come to Newcastle off the back of a very convincing win over Brentford, knocking four goals past them without reply, I mean, we put five past them but whatever. Yes, I know they scored one but it was a soft penalty so it doesn’t count. In all honesty, I don’t think anyone saw such a convincing win on the cards for Villa – my Vital Premier League Podcast co-host did back Villa to win if they binned Gerrard, but even he was shocked at the scoreline.
What's Your Villa Prediction?
Newcastle Win
Draw
Villa Win
Does that mean Villa have turned the corner? I’m not convinced. You know when you’re stuck behind a tractor on a country lane for ages and then when you finally get past you tend to gun it far more than you should to make up for lost time? That’s Villa that is. This was them “passing the tractor” and tomorrow is where they lose the back end and plough into a hedge.
Not only do Newcastle go into the game in much, much better form, but they could also potentially have three game-changers on the bench with Jonjo Shelvey fit again and Allan Saint-Maximin along with Elliot Anderson likely to return to the match-day squad. So if things aren’t going right with the eleven Howe puts out, there are plenty of options available for the first time in a long time.
As you might have guessed I’m pretty confident going into this one and I’m actually sticking to the prediction I made on the podcast.
Match Prediction: 3-0 (I expect Wilson to be among the goals)