Match Preview: Aston Villa v Newcastle United

Who are we playing?
Newcastle United FC on Saturday 23rd August at 12.45pm

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
We (probably) won't sell out but don't leave it too late to get your favourite spot, should be a decent crowd, first home of the season and on the back of beating Stoke and all that. Carlos Sanchez might add one or two to the gate, as key signings tend to.

Easy to get to?
Should be no major issues. There's still the tunnels closure thing if you are popping into town first, but it's no biggie.

Can I watch it on telly?
If you really want to suffer Michael Owen you can watch it on BT Sport, but you'd rather be there in the flesh would you not?

Big game?
Huge.

With Villa facing a terrifying run of fixtures in September/early October, it's beyond vital that we get some points on the board early doors.

Stoke was a good start, though we have to say that we were thoroughly perplexed by Mark Hughes's tactics and while our defensive looked far more solid than in previous seasons, it was only really in the later stages that Stoke gave it anywhere near a proper test.

We still have concerns over a lack of creativity going forwards though bringing Carlos Sanchez in may give Delph the opportunity to do more further up the pitch. We'll see.

Growing fan discontent with Gabby Agbonlahor's form was hardly helped by a lacklustre performance at the Britannia and we wait to see whether he keeps his place in this one. That miss won't have helped

The big bonus from the Stoke game was that Aly Cissokho looked a far better player than his performances at Liverpool had us believe. Let's hope he can maintain this in games where we are more under the cosh. His Villa Premier League debut can only have boosted his confidence.

Ant and Dec

Do Newcastle United have any famous fans?

Well there's Lewis out of Inspector Morse and of course Ant, Dec and Cheryl Cole. There's also Sting, who was very popular in the late seventies.

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy.

So we win


Who's playing for us?
Big Phil Senderos probably did enough to keep his place in what we would expect to be an unchanged back four. Alan Hutton looked more comfortable in a Villa shirt than we've ever seen him before.

We'd hope to see Carlos Sanchez, though Lambert may opt to bring him on from the bench rather change a winning team. That said, Gabby must be under pressure for his place. We expect Bent to push his claims in training this week.

Whisper it, but we may even see another new face in the squad before Saturday...


Who's playing for them?
Daryl Janmaat, Remy Cabella, Emmanuel Riviere and Jack Colback are among the new faces in Geordieland. Another new face, Siem de Jong, could be a handful if he recovers from a foot niggle.

The under-fire Pardew has some decent players in his squad now but will be under fire quickly if he can't swiftly get them to gel. This may be a good time to be playing them.

He said, She said
“We face a Villa side which has just picked up an away win and in the Premier League. That is gold-dust, so they will be feeling fairly confident to turn us over at home and we have to make sure we are a really stiff opposition." Alan Pardew

“Alan Pardew has done a really good job. There’s only so many teams can get into Europe, there’s only so many teams can win the title. It’s hard, it’s really, really tough and it’s getting harder with teams getting stronger in the League." Paul Lambert



Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Newcastle have beaten us 69 times while we have 55 wins. There have been 33 draws.

• Our last win over Newcastle was in April 2011. James Collins scored the only goal. Only Darren Bent and Gabby remain from the Villa players on active duty that day, though Ciaran Clark was an unused sub..

• In recent years, games between the two clubs have been narrow affairs. Our last big win came in February 2008 when a second half hat trick from John Carew gave us a 4-1 win 

Prediction
We think this will be tougher than Stoke, but if the home crowd can stay with the players and not get on their backs at the slightest mistake, we can nick it. Going 2-1 to Villa.