“Our game plan was to really be aggressive and try and stop their rhythm,” said Howe. “That was like us last season.. Use our pace on transitions and get in behind, knowing that Aston Villa play quite a high line.
“I thought the players executed it brilliantly. It’s sort of mixed emotions for me because I look at that team tonight and I think, ‘That’s an elite team, a team that’s capable of achieving great things’. We haven’t seen that for a number of weeks. It’s been a really challenging period for us; a number of injuries, the team has looked disjointed. We looked much more like ourselves.”
After so many setbacks and so many injuries – Alexander Isak limped off before half time here – this was arguably Howe’s most impressive victory of the season, definitely away from home. Nobody could have predicted it before it happened.
Aston Villa, the side with the best home record in the Premier League versus Newcastle United, the team with the second worst away from home.
Only bottom club Sheffield United had taken fewer points on the road this season before this, but just as it looked like Newcastle’s season was going to unravel, they pulled off a win like this and moved up to seventh.
Football’s allure is shaped by its variables. Its enduring appeal is fuelled by its inability to be straightforward or predictable.
Away from home, where they have struggled for so long, it was Newcastle who controlled the tempo of the game, slowing it down to a stroll and then suddenly making a thrust forward to attack. Time and again they looked like exposing Villa’s high line with runners from inside their own half. First Isak got away but had his shot smothered. Then Anthony Gordon, running onto a magnificent curling pass from Jacob Murphy, should have scored. Ezri Konsa did brilliantly to get back, but Gordon still managed to get a shot away, hitting the trailing leg of goalkeeper Emilano Martinez.
Villa did not learn and after Bruno Guimaraes had lifted another long ball for Gordon to run clear, only a kind deflection off Konsa stopped Newcastle taking the lead. From the resulting corner, Villa’s defence evaporated, allowing Schar to sweep home on the edge of the six-yard box.
