Greg . 2 hours ago

A look ahead to an intriguing Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Newcastle

Newcastle travel to Aston Villa on matchday one of the 2025/26 Premier League season, looking to make it four consecutive wins on opening day, one of which was a 5-1 victory over Saturday's opponents at the start of the 2023/24 campaign.

Aston Villa, meanwhile, have the opportunity to record 22 home games unbeaten in all competitions (W15 D6 to date), and land their ninth consecutive home win overall.

It's also worth noting that in the entirety of the 2024/25 Premier League season, the Villans won 11, drew seven and lost just one of their 19 home matches.

Aston Villa vs Newcastle - Recent Head-to-Head RecordBetopickOne of those came via a comprehensive 4-1 win over Newcastle in April, a match in which Ollie Watkins opened the scoring, Fabian Schar equalised, and then three goals in 11 second-half minutes from Ian Maatsen, Dan Burn (OG), and Amadou Onana took the game away from the visitors.

The two clubs are well matched, given that last season the Magpies only pipped Villa to the Champions League on goal difference, and that was despite Eddie Howe's side losing the last two matches, both 1-0 defeats against Arsenal and Everton.

Rogers and Martinez missing for VillaAfter winning three of the last four at the back end of the 24/25 campaign (1-0 vs Fulham, 1-0 vs Bournemouth and 2-0 vs Tottenham), it was a final day defeat at Manchester United (0-2) that meant that Unai Emery's men were unable to leapfrog the north east giants and, as a result, find themselves competing in the Europa League this season.

The game at Old Trafford was a controversial one for the Villans after Morgan Rogers' goal - which may well have changed the course of the game - was ruled out for a contentious foul on Altay Bayindir.

Rogers is likely to miss the Newcastle game through injury, whilst Emi Martinez will also be unavailable after being sent off against United for a blatant body check on Rasmus Hojlund.

Both will be huge misses for Emery, and it brings Ollie Watkins' contribution into even sharper focus.

The striker has scored in all four of his home games against the Magpies (five goals), though interestingly, he hasn't managed to find the net in all four of his Premier League opening day appearances.

Isak's absence could be costly for NewcastleIn terms of Newcastle strikers, it's no real surprise that Howe has kept Alexander Isak out of the matchday squad.

That is obviously a huge blow, more so when you consider that he scored 11 goals in his last 13 away games in the 24/25 campaign.

Only Mo Salah (13 goals) scored more in the same time frame.

Furthermore, the club didn't win any of the last five Premier League games where Isak was absent (D3, L2) and also didn't score in three of them.

The Swedish international has made his position clear regarding a transfer to reigning champions, Liverpool, and his absence means we might well see a less expansive Newcastle team than usual.

Defensive performance needed from Magpies?Whilst a more defensive performance might be going against the grain for Howe, not having someone up front who can hold up the ball and bring others into play means that Villa will consistently be in the ascendancy, putting huge pressure on the Magpies' back-line.

The club have yet to find a suitable successor for Isak, and they've also struggled in the transfer market more generally this summer, missing out on a number of their preferred targets.

Newcastle United Recent FormBetopickA capture of RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko would've solved the problem up front, but the target man turned his nose up at the thought of Champions League football, preferring to transfer to Manchester United - who have no European football of any description to offer him.

For that reason alone, it's a real kick in the teeth for Howe.

Quiet transfer windows for both teamsA loan transfer for Aaron Ramsdale and two permanent switches for Malick Thiaw and Anthony Elanga are the sum total of Newcastle's business to date, and that doesn't bode well when factoring in the pressures of another campaign against the elite teams in Europe.

Villa were believed to have wanted to sign Marcus Rashford permanently after a successful loan spell, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't an option, and the Man United ace has now pitched up at Barcelona.

Marco Bizot, Yasin Ozcan and Evann Guessand have cost the club a combined €37m (£31m), but with acknowledge, none are the big names that supporters may have expected to see through the doors.

One positive is that they've managed to keep hold of the likes of Watkins and Rogers, both of whom were being courted by other teams in the earlier part of the summer.

Jason PettigroveBetopick