Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle United
by Jon Tait
at Villa Park
THERE’S a flag in the Gallowgate End that declares: “Everyone needs a Fabian Schar.”
The fans sing it along to the famous Buggles tune. Oh-ah-oh-ah, his first half double, oh-ah-oh caused Villa trouble.
The stylish Swiss centre-back came up the pitch and netted from two set pieces that put Newcastle in control of a game that they dominated in the first half, giving Eddie Howe’s team only their second win on the road this season.
“I’m honestly more proud of the team for the performance,” said Schar afterwards.
“Villa Park is a tough place to come, and we knew we had to be at our best and obviously the performance was brilliant.
“Personally it’s great to score goals and help the team, but to see what we are capable of should give us confidence for the rest of the season.”
Schar outmuscled a defender and got on the end of a Kieran Trippier corner to fire the opener low into the net, and he pounced again just three minutes later to lash in his second after a deflected Anthony Gordon effort came back off the underside of the bar.
He almost added a third from another corner but was denied by the leg of sprawling keeper Martinez.
“It would have been nice to take the ball home — for a defender I think this would be very special, but I’ll take the two goals,” he grinned.
The Geordies hadn’t won away in the League since an 8-0 drubbing of Sheffield United back in September, but the pace of Gordon, Alexander Isak and the returning Jacob Murphy caused fourth-placed Villa all sorts of problems.
Murphy bundled in number three at the back post from a low Miguel Almiron cross that was credited as an own goal off in-sliding defender Alex Moreno after the break.
“There was a really good feel about the team from minute one today. I thought we were really aggressive, the players were really committed, and I thought we were the better team early in the game,” said Newcastle boss Howe.
“Fabian is a goalscorer, he’ll tell you that, and it was nice to see him on the end of two set plays with valuable goals.”
Villa, who had been unbeaten at home for almost a year, finally found a spark with the introduction of Leon Bailey, who terrorised Dan Burn down the right.
Ollie Watkins fired in his 50th Premier League goal to give them hope. Watkins was denied a second by a ridiculously tight VAR offside decision soon after.
But Howe brought on Tino Livramento to counter-balance the Villa goal threat as they switched to five at the back, and it took all of the sting out of the game.
Deflated Villa boss Unai Emery said he was “a little bit frustrated and a little bit disappointed but very proud” of his team.
“Newcastle overall deserved it. They were better in the first 60 minutes. They were strong on set pieces, and we conceded two goals. We weren’t controlling things on the pitch like we planned, and have done before in other matches,” he continued.
The victory took Newcastle up to seventh and in Howe’s mind, and in his car, he can’t rewind they’ve come too far.
