August 21st 2010
The Premiership football returns to St James Park with the Magpies looking to make amends for the opening defeat at Old Trafford with a solid performance against Aston Villa. The Villans are looking to build on the impressive start that saw them hammer West Ham and everything suggests we should see a very entertaining game.
Newcastle were always going to have an uphill task on their return to the top flight football, so the players won’t be too downhearted after the Old Trafford defeat, but will rather try and concentrate on their next opponents. Having kept the majority of players together after the Magpies had been relegated from the Premiership, Chris Hughton certainly didn’t need to make a lot of changes upon team’s return to the elite division, and the soccer betting experts expect the young boss to guide Newcastle to safety without too many problems this term. The game against very good Villa side will be a real test for his players, although most of them are already used to playing big games week in week out. The situation with injuries is a bit better than last weekend since Danny Guthrie and Peter Lovenkrands should be available for selection, but Best, Simpson, Gosling, Taylor and Campbell are still out of contention.
Even though we are yet to see the full effect of Martin O’Neill’s departure on Villa’s fortunes, caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald enjoyed a brilliant start to the season as the Villans defeated West Ham in their opening game. In the meantime, he was brave enough to leave quite a few starters from the squad to face Rapid in Europa League and the fans will be thankful for that should Villa record a respectable result at St James Park. There were more events in Villa camp during the last week with James Milner finally completing the move to Manchester City and Stephen Ireland going in the opposite direction. Just like his counterpart, Kevin MacDonald has major selection problems as Agbonlahor, Cuellar, Collins, Delph, Sidwell and Weimann are all sidelined with injuries but Villa do have big enough squad to cope with the absentees.
Conclusion
Villa have started the season better and they look very good at the moment but the numerous injuries to the playing squad could hurt their chances in this match. This will be the first match for Newcastle at their St James Park this season and with the passionate fans behind them the Magpies look capable of stopping the Villans from taking all three points. Therefore, we could easily see the teams canceling each other out and I don’t think either side would be too disappointed with one point.
Verdict: Draw (X)
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