Read Louise Taylor's match report
That’s it from me. Thanks for your company, correspondence and puns on Cash and Burn. The action continues at the King Power Stadium, where Leicester entertain West Ham and Kurt Zouma has just pulled out, possibly feeling as sick as a cat. Do join John Brewin for live coverage of that game.
“Perfect,” says Dan Burn, the man of the match. “A clean sheet is important and this run has changed the whole feel. The intensity we’re playing with at the moment, the crowd feed off it.”
That is surely a two-way street, but you can’t argue with the results. It’s the first time for more than three years that Newcastle have won three league games in a row.
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No goals after half-time anywhere in the Premier League, so Liverpool win 1-0 at Burnley and Wolves win 2-0 at Spurs. That takes Wolves up to seventh and sends Spurs down to eighth, one point behind them with a game in hand.
At the bottom, Newcastle are now four points clear of the bottom three, all of whom have lost this weekend.
So Kieran Trippier’s free kick settled it, blasting through the Villa wall. Newcastle were not very good in the second half, but they were just good enough. Villa faded again after a bright half-hour, and Eddie Howe shuffled his pack after losing both his full-backs, including Trippier, who is already his most important player.
Ful time: Newcastle 1-0 Villa
That’s it! And Newcastle have a third win on the trot.
97 min: We haven’t had a yellow card for a full two minutes, so Jacob Ramsey commits a silly foul and joins umpteen others in the book.
95 min: Saint-Maximin is doing his thing, jinking and jiving and getting a shot away, straight at Martinez.
95 min: The next booking is for Leon Bailey, who bundles Saint-Maximin over as Newcastle launch a counter.
94 min: A cross from Cash on the right: too rushed and too easy for Dubravka to swallow.
93 min: Sky’s man of the match is Dan Burn. He’s been good, but not as good or as influential as Trippier.
92 min: Eddie Howe has somehow kept a sub up his sleeve. He takes Willock off and gives Bruno Guimaraes a second appearance.
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91 min: There will be seven more minutes.
90 min: A shot from Willock is blocked. It may even have been on target, a first for Newcastle in this half.
89 min: Douglas Luiz goes into the book now for grabbing someone who’d just impeded him and got away with it.
87 min: Gary Neville is praising Dan Burn and his composure. Newcastle do seem to be spending their new-found wealth well.
85 min: Ramsey goes for a mazy run but ends up merely taking the ball out. That proper contest I mentioned has rather evaporated since VAR intervened.
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83 min: A final substitution from Steven Gerrard, who takes off John McGinn and sends on Carney Chukwuemeka.
In the other games, it’s still 1-0 to Liverpool and 2-0 to Wolves.
81 min: A booking for Jonjo Shelvey as he brings Ramsey down with a late lunge.
80 min: Newcastle manage to get up the other end, but not for long. Villa counter and Dubravka has to come out with a flying header, which he pulls off with some aplomb.
77 min: A corner for Villa, followed by another, though nothing comes of them. They’re now clearly the better side with nowt to show for it.
“Both of these teams are capable of creating quality moments that take the game to exciting heights,” says Peter Oh, “but occasionally they do Cash and Burn.” Ha.
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76 min: We’ve had yet another delay, because of something on the pitch I think. Digne finally takes the free kick and slams it into the wall, with less success than Trippier had earlier.
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73 min: Bailey wins a free kick on the right wing after a foul by Joelinton. He needs to be careful too.
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71 min: Two changes for Villa as Watkins gives way to Danny Ings and Buendia to Leon Bailey.
70 min: Villa have a free kick, looped in and soon seen off, but they win a corner and keep up the pressure until yet another cross, from Digne, goes right across goal and out for a throw. Burn and Mings get into a fracas that ends with Mings’ shirt in shreds. That’s reckless from Burn, who is already on a yellow.
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69 min: Dubravka is OK to continue. And he’s needed, because Villa have now had six attempts on goal in this half.
67 min: Yet another man down for Newcastle. This time it’s the goalie, Martin Dubravka, holding the toes of his right foot. Eddie Howe takes the opportunity to tell his team to go to 4-5-1.
66 min: Dan Burn goes into the book on his Newcastle debut after crashing into the back of Watkins.
65 min: Another chance for Villa as another cross comes in and Buendia’s header loops past the far post. Newcastle have lost both their full-backs, which is making all the difference at the moment.
NO GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Villa
A vast roar as Watkins’ toe turns out to be offside.
GOAL!? Newcastle 1-1 Villa (Watkins 61)
A simple header for Watkins at the far post after ricochet from a fine cross by Digne on the left – in the space Trippier left behind. But it could be offside...
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59 min: Saint-Maximin has a shot from the edge of the box and it’s a powerful one, drilled past the far post. There’s a corner and Burn has a header, straight at the keeper. We have a proper contest at last.
58 min: Newcastle come to life as Saint-Maximin finds his feet and charges down the middle. Mings puts in an excellent tackle.
56 min: Villa win a free kick 25 yards out, in the middle. Luiz does better than he did with his first two set pieces, which isn’t saying a great deal, but they’ve already had more shots in this half (four) than the first (three).
54 min: With no Trippier to curtail him, Coutinho is beginning to enjoy himself, drifting into the middle to spray passes.
51 min: Matty Cash drills a shot across goal. He was unmarked on the right because Saint-Maximin was unable to track back. Is that another Newcastle injury?
50 min: Villa get forward as Coutinho plays his first through ball of the match, down the left. Ollie Watkins gets a shot away but can’t keep it down.
Trippier is going off
47 min: Trippier goes down injured and instantly hands the armband to Shelvey. Emil Krafth comes on, so Eddie Howe now has only one more sub.
46 min: Villa kick off. They’ve surely spent the past 15 minutes getting a rocket from Steven Gerrard.
If you had to pick the man of the match now, it wouldn’t take long. Kieran Trippier, captain for the day, has won all his duels in the air and five out of six on the floor. He has scored the only goal and had the only shot on target, and the man he’s marking, Philippe Coutinho, has been invisible.
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“Couldn’t help but notice Joelinton not being given three yellows for three fouls in one passage of play,” says Norrie Hernon. “Where are all the f*cking literalists now?!?”
A good question from Zach Neeley. “If Spursiness is more powerful than Conte-ness, does that make it inContenence?”
Half-time scores from elsewhere in the Premier League. One of them more surprising than the other.
- Burnley 0-1 Liverpool
- Spurs 0-2 Wolves
Half-time! Newcastle 1-0 Villa
The interval finally arrives. Newcastle, with the crowd acting as an extra man, have been worth their lead, showing intent and carrying on where they left off against Everton. Villa have been disappointing – all possession and no end product.
45+5 min: Mings comes close to an own goal, heading over his goalie, who had come out to join him. The ball spares his blushes by going past the post.
45+4 min: Mings wins the header at the back post but can’t bring it down. Time for the first sub: Manquillo goes off to nurse that ankle and Paul Dummett comes on.
45+3 min: It’s another corner, and another delay as there’s a tedious amount of shoving going on.
45+2 min: Villa string some more passes together and win a corner. It falls to McGinn, who shoots from the D – on target, but carried wide by a deflection.
45 min: We will have five added minutes. It could have been even more.
43 min: Chris Wood takes a break from heading the ball to have a go from distance. It’s high, wide and ugly.
Liverpool have gone into the lead at Burnley, through Fabinho. The only surprise is that it took them so long.
41 min: Villa suddenly remember that they can attack too and get into the Newcastle box twice without threatening. McGinn is the next name to go into the book, rather harshly as he got the ball in the process of tackling Saint-Maximin.
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39 min: The crowd are making so much noise and inspiring Newcastle. They surge into the box again, but Saint-Maximin puts in so many twists and turns that he ends up confusing himself. Joelinton tries so hard to win the ball back that he commits three fouls, according to Gary Neville, and collects a yellow card.
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38 min: Yet another delay as Manquillo gets treatment on a sore ankle.
37 min: It was too close to go up and down, so Trippier, who clearly grew up reading We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, just went through. He got lucky with a deflection, bobbling up off Buendia’s knee, but it was a case of fortune favouring the bold.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Villa (Trippier 35)
Blasted straight through the wall!
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So, a free kick to Newcastle. Trippier lines it up and McGinn plays the draught excluder.
NO PEN!
Yes, it was outside the area – just in the D. Good play by Willock though, powering into the box.
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PENALTY!? To Newcastle
Willock goes down, it’s definitely a foul by Calum Chambers, but is it in the area...?
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30 min: Another shot for Willock as Newcastle’s pressing pins Villa in their own half.
29 min: Wood, a caption tells us, has already won six aerial duels. Nobody else on either side has won more than two.
27 min: A free kick near the corner flag for Villa, who do a bit better as Digne manages not to overhit it, but again nothing comes of it. Newcastle bustle up the other end, where Wood has a header that goes wide. As in the first five minutes, Newcastle look the sharper of the two sides.
25 min: The crowd’s hopes rise at Saint-Maximin pounces on a loose ball and steams into the box, but his dinked cross is easily headed away.
23 min: Before it became all about Schar again, there was an actual shot! But not a very good one – Joe Willock blasted the ball into Row Z.
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21 min: Schar’s wound is bleeding, so he gets more attention from the physio. He’s now sporting a Terry Butcher headband, though, as Gary Neville points out, the cut seems to be below the eye, not above it.
Meanwhile, Spurs are 2-0 down to Wolves! Who hardly ever score more than one. The scorer is Dendoncker.
17 min: It’s all gone a bit scrappy. Schar again shows some intent, racing onto the right wing, but Villa get plenty of bodies around him.
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16 min: ... and Luiz puts too much on it again. How hard can it be to take a corner?
15 min: Newcastle were the better side until the interruption, but it’s been mostly Villa since. They win a corner as a neat sequence of passes ends with Ramsey bursting into the box.
13 min: More good work from Schar, who intercepts and then sends a through ball down the right. Fraser, in acres, gets a cross in that Wood can’t reach.
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10 min: Digne sends a fine ball for Watkins to chase. Schar, showing no ill effects, is alert enough to shunt it out.
9 min: Schar is able to continue, thankfully. Villa have a free kick in a dangerous area but Douglas Luiz overhits it.
An early goal elsewhere: Wolves take the lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium through Raul Jimenez, who followed up a shot from Ruben Neves that was well saved by Hugo Lloris.
5 min: A worry for Newcastle as Fabian Schar stays on the floor after a collision in mid-air with his captain, Kieran Trippier. It looks as if he’s being treated for a black eye.
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3 min: Villa’s turn to make their way into the box, only for Digne and Ramsey to get in each other’s way.
2 min: An early free kick for Newcastle as Manquillo is brought down on the left, but they can’t do anything with it.
1 min: Newcastle kick off and they’re in the box already.
The players are on the field, and Hey Jude is ringing out around the ground. Sport these days, eh: it’s basically Paul McCartney v Neil Diamond.
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Villa haven’t won at St James’ Park since 2005. That was an occasion to remember: Villa won 3-0, and by the end Newcastle were down to eight men. It may have been a case of a team coming to resemble its manager – Graeme Souness.
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Villa team: no unforced changes
Steven Gerrard can’t play Ezri Konsa, who picked up a red card late on against Leeds, so he brings in Calum Chambers to partner Tyrone Mings. Otherwise Villa are unchanged, with Danny Ings still stuck on the bench.
Aston Villa: Martinez; Cash, Chambers, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Ramsey; Buendia, Watkins, Coutinho.
Subs: Olsen, Hause, Young, Iroegbunam, Sanson, Chrisene, Chukwuemeka, Bailey, Ings.
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Newcastle team: Burn, but no Guimaraes
Eddie Howe opts not to change a winning front six, so Guimarães has to wait his turn. At the back Dan Burn comes in for Jamaal Lascelles and Javier Manquillo for Matt Targett, who can’t play against his parent club. Kieran Trippier, whose fitness was in doubt, is not only playing – he’s also the captain.
Newcastle United: Dubravka; Trippier, Burn, Schar, Manquillo; Willock, Shelvey, Joelinton; Fraser, Wood, Saint-Maximin.
Subs: Darlow, Krafth, Dummett, De Bolle, Longstaff, Guimarães, Almiron, Murphy, Gayle.
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Preamble
Three months ago today, two grand old football clubs appointed new managers. Newcastle rescued Eddie Howe from gardening leave, while Aston Villa poached Steven Gerrard from Rangers. Both have instilled belief and made some shrewd signings, and look at them now: neither side has lost in the league since 2 January (don’t mention the Cup). Who knew that if you made a progressive appointment, you’d make progress?
Newcastle have gone from no-hopers, nailed on for relegation, to collecting eight points from four games. The last MBM they appeared in, when they came from behind to beat Everton on Wednesday, contained a sentence you don’t see very often: “Newcastle were superb tonight.” Today they may well change a winning team by giving a start to their newest recruit, the Brazilian holding midfielder Bruno Guimaraes. He will find himself trying to thwart the Brazilian attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho, who was instrumental in all three Villa goals against Leeds in midweek - first a pinpoint finish, then two artful assists for Jacob Ramsey, a gifted young player who has been even better since Coutinho arrived.
Kick-off is at 2pm GMT, and I’ll be back soon with the teams.
