Aston Villa take on the visitors Newcastle in the round 22 match of English Premier League. The match will be played on Tuesday, January 30th at Villa Park (Birmingham).
Back in the fall of the year before last, Aston Villa somehow managed to persuade Unai Emery to come to Birmingham. But this collaboration seems to have exceeded all expectations. Already last season, they managed to finish in 7th place, a position eligible for European competition. But summer transfers with high-profile newcomers indicated they weren't planning to stop there. And it's been going great. In the Conference League, starting from the summer qualification, they advanced to the playoffs by winning the group. But the biggest surprise was in the Premier League: by the end of 2023, they managed to climb to 2nd place in the current table. However, as if frightened by their success, before Christmas, there was only a draw with the weak Sheffield United and a lackluster defeat (leading 2-0 but losing 2-3) to Manchester United. And they settled for a goalless draw with Everton—the first such result for Emery during his time in England… Which was immediately repeated against Chelsea in the cup.
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Newcastle are in a difficult situation. In the season before last, the Magpies finally transferred ownership from Mike Ashley to a fund controlled by the Saudi Arabian royal family. The first decision of the new board was to invite Eddie Howe to the coaching position. The young coach was initially supposed to win a tough battle for survival. But in fact, throughout the last season, the Magpies managed to stay in the quartet of leaders and finished there. This finally allowed them to return to the Champions League after a couple of decades of absence. But there, the English team was grouped with Borussia, PSG, and Milan, and although they fought well, they finished 4th, ending their international campaign. In parallel, in the League Cup, after defeating City and Manchester United, they disappointingly lost to Chelsea on penalties in the quarterfinals (with Modric's equalizing goal in the 90+ minute). All this dense schedule and the final failures affected the Premier League, where after a decent start, there was a sharp decline. The team lost 6 out of 7 matches there, and it seems that only the 3-0 win in the Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland prevented the manager from being fired. Especially since they later secured a 2-0 win against Fulham in the same format.
At the beginning of the season, the Magpies defeated the Villans 5-1 at St. James' Park. But they continued the trend: in this pair, the hosts of the arena have won for the fifth time. The home team is expected to win in Birmingham. But considering the form of the sides, it's worth betting on total under 3.5 goals.
Prediction for the match: Under 3.5 scored goals.
