Neal Maupay and Siem De Jong gave Newcastle United a 2-0 win over Aston Villa as Paul Lambert's poor St. James' Park record continued.
Novocastrian resilience and equally typical weather of the region combined to continue Paul lambert's hoodoo at St. James' Park, as Newcastle defeated Aston VIlla thanks to goals from Neal Maupay and Siem De Jong.
Wind and rain made for a tricky game for both sides, and the Villa boss continued his record of never having won away at Newcastle. The hosts took the lead early on, they continued to dominate throughout the match and found the winner early into the second half
The conditions ensured both sides got off to a slow start in a dull first half, with neither team able to get into their passing groove. Newcastle had initially seemed to start with a direct gameplan, naming a team in a 4-1-2-2-1 shape with a rare start for Haris Vukcic, and although it resulted in Newcastle seeing a majority of the ball, they were unable to do too much with it.
A Newcastle set-piece gave the hosts another opportunity to create a chance, and Cabella took that chance by curling in an excellent delivery, which Maupay got onto the end of, escaping around the back of a static Ron Vlaar to head past Guzan.
The goal failed to spur Aston Villa into action and Newcastle continued to be the better of the two sides. Some fine play later on saw Hatem Ben Arfa released with a clear one-on-one chance, but a desperate intervention from Okore saw Villa keep themselves in the game.
With time running out for Lambert's men, Sissoko and Kurzawa looked to play it safe down the left. The two managed to find a way through, the Frenchman cutting back to find De Jong, who produced a fine finish to secure the result for the hosts.
Remaining Fixtures
We kicked off the season against newly promoted Huddersfield Town, Kurzawa gave us the lead midway through the first half before the visitors replied on the stroke of halftime. Despite dominating for most of the second half we had to wait til the 88th minute for a winner as Ben Arfa was in the right place at the right time to make it 2-1, Stoke City were next and a trip to the Britannia. This was truly a match to forget at the rain made it virtually impossible to play our natural possession game and we struggled to create any real clear cut chances. the match ending in a bore draw
Barclays Premier League table
After 3 games of the Barclays Premier League season we currently sit first on 7 points, closely followed by newly promoted Nottingham Forest and Everton, who are tipped to have a very strong season, though 7 points is a good return of three matches, i beleive it could have easily been nine points. Nonetheless a great start
Upcoming Fixtures
September will see us play 5 matches, three in the Premier League and two cup games. First up a home match against moneybags Manchester City, who we have a fair decent record against, PSG are up second and our first Champions League match which will take place at the Parc De Princes.
we then face Arsenal at the Emirates before traveling to the Madejski to face Reading in the Capital Once Cup, it all finishes with a trip to Upton Park to face West Ham