90’+4’Full TimeSecond Half ends, Aston Villa 3, Newcastle United 0.90’+3’BookingJacob Ramsey (Aston Villa) is shown the yellow card.90’+2’SubstitutionSubstitution, Aston Villa. Anwar El Ghazi replaces Ollie Watkins.90’+1’SubstitutionSubstitution, Aston Villa. Ezri Konsa replaces Ollie Watkins.90’BookingJohn McGinn (Aston Villa) is shown the yellow card.85’SubstitutionSubstitution, Aston Villa. Tyrone Mings replaces Jacob Ramsey.85’Goal!Goal! Aston Villa 3, Newcastle United 0. Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by John McGinn with a through ball.80’SubstitutionSubstitution, Newcastle United. Ryan Fraser replaces Sean Longstaff.68’SubstitutionSubstitution, Newcastle United. Ryan Fraser replaces Sean Longstaff.68’SubstitutionSubstitution, Newcastle United. Matt Targett replaces Jamal Lewis.56’SubstitutionSubstitution, Newcastle United. Miguel Almirón replaces Joelinton.56’SubstitutionSubstitution, Newcastle United. Callum Wilson replaces Ryan Fraser.Second Half begins Aston Villa 1, Newcastle United 0.45’+2’First Half ends, Aston Villa 1, Newcastle United 0.45’BookingFabian Schär (Newcastle United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.22’BookingJohn McGinn (Aston Villa) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.15’Goal!Goal! Aston Villa 1, Newcastle United 0. Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a headed pass following a corner.1’Post updateOllie Watkins (Aston Villa) hits the right post with a right footed shot from outside the box.
Ollie Watkins continued his impressive form with two goals as Aston Villa secured an emphatic victory over Newcastle, ending their five-match winning streak at Villa Park. The former Brentford striker opened the scoring in the 15th minute when he cushioned a header for Jacob Ramsey to sweep low into the net, before hitting the post inside 30 seconds of kick-off. Unai Emery’s team dominated the early stages and had already forced two fine saves out of Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope before Watkins gave them a two-goal cushion midway through the second half with a close-range finish that was slightly deflected off Kieran Trippier.
The 27-year-old completed a one-sided victory with eight minutes remaining, converting a low shot to take his league tally for the season to 14 – 11 of which have come in his last 12 top-flight appearances. With England manager Gareth Southgate watching on in the stands, it was a masterful display from Watkins and his team as they inflicted a heaviest defeat of the campaign on Newcastle and moved six points off third-placed Newcastle having played one game more.
Villa have now won 12 of their 18 matches under Emery and only leaders Arsenal and champions Manchester City can match their tally of 38 points during that period. Emery told BBC Match of the Day: “The first target was to escape the bottom – we did. The next was to get in the top half – we are. We are being very demanding to add a new target to be in the top six, but we are going to face the teams that are now fighting for that.”
Despite their impressive campaign, Newcastle were comfortably second best here and struggled to cope with the pace of Watkins, who was making darting runs between Trippier and Fabian Schar at every opportunity. Alexander Isak had a shot parried over the bar by Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez as Newcastle improved after the restart but they had little impact as Villa continued to create the better openings and Eddie Howe’s team will need to produce a vastly improved performance when fellow Champions League aspirants Tottenham visit St James’ Park on 23 April.
John McGinn was awarded player of the match with an average rating of 8.49 and was joined in impressing by Watkins (8.46), Ramsey (8.12), Mings (8.03), Moreno Lopera (8.03), Buendía (7.92), Douglas Luiz (7.83), Young (7.78), Martinez (7.75) and Konsa (7.74). For Newcastle, Pope had an average rating of 5.15 while Isak (4.88), Bruno Guimarães (4.85), Almiron (4.66), Trippier (4.52), Murphy (4.48), Joelinton (4.43), Willock (4.36), Wilson (4.35), Targett (4.34), Schär (4.30), Longstaff (4.25), Botman (4.19) and Anderson (4.10) all featured in their defeat.