Newcastle United and Aston Villa could not be separated in a game where the Villans failed to capitalise on a chance to move out of the bottom three.
Newcastle United and Aston Villa Share the Spoils at St. James’ Park
Newcastle 1-1 Villa
A first goal of the campaign from Dwight Gayle broke the deadlock after he made amends to latch onto an Andy Carroll assist, to be able to then steer the ball goalwards after 70 minutes.
Villa then pushed and probed forward, demonstrating an eager approach to not drop more vital points in their battle to beat the drop. Ahmed Elmohamady found the leveller ten minutes to full time. The Egyptian scored with an intelligent flick on at the near post from a Conor Hourihane corner.
Villa Still One Point From Safety
The outlook for Villa continues to be bleak somewhat, deep in relegation trouble and in need of a much-needed win. To claw themselves away from the drop, they will need to quickly make the most of the turnaround of a frantic fixture list and will look ahead to Wolverhampton Wanderers next.
The Achilles heel this season being the never-ending mistakes coming in individual errors, yesterday been no different with the goal. Where the defensive shape was disjointed and ineffective for the attacking phase that led to the goal, that allowed Gayle what seemed to be forever to close in on goal before a distinctive tidy finish.
Newcastle Struggling for Creativity
There has been a common theme surrounding Newcastle scoring goals. This will be another home result which has seen them have to settle for a point, like in prior games where they may feel there was more at stake.
The main goal source this season is Allan Saint-Maximin, a sharp and potent winger, with an array of innovative manoeuvres up his sleeve. A problem though is a lot of the time is that the goals seem to have dried up, Miguel Almiron leads the way with six goals, highlighting the importance of the defensive set up.
Steve Bruce has a set system, successful at getting results and getting a grinding job done. Villa pushed and threw everything at the Toon, yet with their defiant application and rigorous format, it was enough to take Newcastle to 39 points.
Douglas Luiz the Shining Light
Dor the third match running, Douglas Luiz ran the show and made the most of a midfield with the quality in Jack Grealish and John McGinn.
Yet the Brazilian, with his positional credibility and kinetic optimisation, showed a maturing player quickly adapting as a permanent starting XI option and will be indispensable to the Villans during their closing games.
What’s Next?
Newcastle will be back in FA Cup action and take on Manchester City, with Steve Bruce’s side looking to get to Wembley, having all but secured their league status.
Aston Villa are up first Saturday in the early kick-off, with Dean Smith’s sides taking on fellow West Midlanders Wolves in a league game. Both sides are certain to go for it, with each striving to reach their retrospective aims.
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