Newcastle United v Aston Villa
Football : English Premier League
Sunday 22 August 2010 - Kickoff 1:30pm

This game is live on TV

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Newcastle United

Newcastle United showed some resilience in the first 30 minutes at Old Trafford in their opening League game of the season, but once the first goal went in there was only going to be one winner. Defensively, the Magpies were a shambles and will need to rectify that as soon as possible if they want to extend their stay in this division for more than 1 season.

Newcastle will be hoping to carry forward the form they displayed at St James' Park last season in the Championship to this season. They were 18-5-0 last season, scoring 56 goals and conceding just 13 which was a complete contrast to their last season in the Premier League when they were only 5-7-9 at home.

The Magpies will be hoping their squad is bolstered with the return of Peter Lovenkrands and Danny Guthrie from injury, but there are still a number of missing faces. Sol Campbell is not quite ready to start while Danny Simpson, Leon Best, Steven Taylor and Dan Gosling are all sidelined.

Possible Newcastle United Line Up: Harper, Perch, Williamson, Coloccini, Enrique, Gutierrez, Nolan, Smith, Guthrie, Lovenkrands and Carroll (4-5-1)

Aston Villa

Aston Villa have made a decent start to the new campaign considering all the turmoil surrounding the club only days before the Premier League campaign began. They earned an impressive 1-1 draw at Rapid Vienna during the week and managed to rest many of their big players with this game in mind.

Kevin McDonald has done no harm to his prospects of getting the managerial role on a full time basis so far. James Milner was finally sold to Manchester City but Villa should not be disheartened with the £18 million and Stephen Ireland they got in return.

The Villians were one of the most successful away sides in the Premier League last season, with only Manchester United and Chelsea picking up more wins on the road. They compiled a 9-5-5 away record with 23 goals scored and 23 conceded, but their defensive stats were skewed by their 7-1 loss at Stamford Bridge. The goals conceded gave them the 4th best away defensive record in the League.

John Carew is a doubt due to a knee injury while Gabby Agbonlahor remains on the sidelines. The likes of Ashley Young, Richard Dunne and Brad Friedal should all be restored to the side while new signing Stephen Ireland is in line to make his debut.

Possible Aston Villa Line Up: Friedal, Luke Young, Dunne, Clarke, Warnock, Albrighton, Petrov, Ireland, Downing, Ashley Young and Carew (4-5-1)

Head to Head

Newcastle United have a decent record against Aston Villa in recent seasons, most notably here in the North East. They will perhaps look to wipe out some bad memories as it was the Villians who consigned Newcastle back to the Championship with a 1-0 win at Villa Park on the final day of the 2008-09 season.

The Magpies have lost just 1 of their last 9 home games with Villa and are unbeaten in their last 4. Newcastle have won 4 of those 9 games here at St James' Park.

Prediction

Newcastle United will need to improve defensively in this League as small mistakes are much more readily punished than they would be in the Championship. They looked a little out of sync at Manchester United last week but there are many teams that can look like that when the Red Devils pick up form. This is an interesting test for Chris Hughton who needs to keep the fans behind this team after the confidence picked up last season.

Aston Villa are a counter attacking side most suitable to games away from Villa Park as they proved last season. The team has a lot of pace and the introduction of Stephen Ireland presents interesting opportunities for those attributes to be exploited. The side has stuck together after off the field issues and that can only be a testament to the job being done by Kevin McDonald and his staff.

I find it hard to imagine Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool being offered at the prices Villa are, and this is the side that finished with the 3rd most wins away from home last season.

Newcastle looked suspect to pace last week, and I think they will be in for a rough time here. The value has to lie in the away win here.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Newcastle United 0-1 Aston Villa

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

The Aston Villa WIN looks full of value