Aston Villa are looking for their second league win of the season, travelling to Tyneside on Saturday to face Newcastle United.
Neither team has made a particularly convincing start, with Newcastle sitting 11th in the table and Villa down in 16th as both have struggled to gain much momentum.
Villa shared the points with Brentford last week after goals in both halves saw the sides play out a 2-2 draw. However, Unai Emery’s side enjoyed a far more emphatic result in midweek, thrashing Fenerbahce 6-0 in the Champions League.
Nicolas Jackson has been a standout performer for Villa this season, registering five goals in eight appearances across all competitions. Despite their European success, however, the Villans will be keen to translate that form into the Premier League, where three defeats, two draws and just one victory (against Tottenham Hotspur) have amounted to just five points.
In his pre-match press conference, Unai Emery said that he was happy with their performance against Fernabache, but emphasised “we have a lot of work to do” and need “to improve”.
Newcastle have had a shaky start to the season and in six games have registered two wins, draws and losses. Their most recent fixture against Coventry City on Monday evening saw them concede four goals, losing 4-1. Matthias Jaissle said in his pre-match conference, “It’s never easy after conceding four goals,” and put the loss down, in part, to “too many individual mistakes”.
Defensive struggles have posed a major concern for the Magpies, and with 13 goals conceded in the Premier League, it has put them joint-first with Chelsea and Bournemouth.
Jaissle gave injury updates on several players: Bazoumana Toure is doing “much better” after coming off in Monday’s defeat at Coventry, and Jaissle hopes he can be available for tomorrow’s fixture. He mentioned Anthony Elanga, saying he will hopefully return to training by next week and commented on Burn, saying it’s “too soon” for him to be back in the starting XI, but possible for Joelinton.
With both sides desperate to find greater consistency, Saturday’s encounter presents an important opportunity for Villa and Newcastle to turn their fortunes around and build some much-needed momentum.
The match kicks off at St James’ Park at 5:30pm BST on Saturday 17 October.