EPL Match Preview: Newcastle United vs. Aston Villa
The magpies under Chris Hughton face Kevin McDonald’s Aston Villa in their second match of the English Premier League season. Both the teams had relatively different opening games of the season. Villa hosted West Ham and gave the Hammers a master class in football as the eventual score line was 3-0 to Aston Villa.
Conversely, Newcastle United travelled to Manchester United’s theatre of dreams for their first match of the season. A match in which Newcastle hardly saw the ball as United gave them a special welcome to the English Premier League by knocking three goals past the despairing Steve Harper. Newcastle earned their promotion to the English Premier League after spending just a single year down in the second division of English football i.e. The Championship.
Aston Villa in the summer parted ways with their impressive manager Martin O’Neill but all fears of a breakdown at the club were dispelled by their superb performance in the first match of the season against the Hammers. Villa recently sold one of their best midfielders James Milner to Manchester City but as a part of the deal, Stephen Ireland moved from Manchester to Aston Villa.
Ireland has already expressed his happiness at signing for Aston Villa and the young midfielder spoke at length about his relief on escaping the mad transfer show that has been on display at the Manchester ‘circus’ City. Aston Villa played in a Europa League qualification play-off in mid week against the Austrian club side Rapid Wien. However, their present caretaker manager Kevin McDonald fielded a relatively second string team in the European tie which ended in a 1-1 draw. So it is expected that Villa will revert to their original line-up for their match against Newcastle United at St. James’s Park.
This game will be the first English Premier League game at St. James’s Park in over a year as Newcastle spent the last season in the Championship. It already looks to be a tough season for Newcastle which has retained many of players that were part of their squad which have seen relegation from the English Premier League. Villa’s regular starters such as their goal-keeper Brad Friedel, winger Ashley Young and the club captain Stilian Petrov are all set to return to the starting line-up.
Defenders Richard Dunne and Luke Young are also scheduled to return to the starting eleven for Kevin McDonald. In other squad news, Villa’s striker John Carew is fit for the match after recovering in time from his knee injury but the young English centre forward Gabriel Agbonlahor is out of action due to a hamstring problem. Villa’s defenders James Collins and Carlos Cuellar are all set to miss the match due to their respective calf and hamstring injuries while midfielder Steve Sidwell is also sidelined due to an Achilles injury.
For Newcastle, Peter Lovenkrands and Danny Guthrie are facing a race against time to be fit for the magpie’s second Premier League clash of the season. The pair missed Newcastle’s first game of the season against Manchester United due to groin and knee injuries. Newcastle’s big summer signing, Sol Campbell is still fighting his way towards match fitness whereas Danny Simpson and Leon Best look huge doubts for the match on Sunday against Aston Villa due to their ankle injuries.
Hughton will also be without the central defender Steve Taylor as he is suffering from a shoulder injury while the new comer Dan Gosling will also be unavailable because of his knee problems. Out of their last three Premier League meetings against Aston Villa, Newcastle have only won one while the other two have been won by Aston Villa. The last goalless draw between the two English clubs came in the 2007 English Premier League season. The kick-off at Saint James’s Park will take place on Sunday, 22nd of August at 13:30 GMT.
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