Newcastle lined up in a 433 at home with defenders Botman, Schar, Burn, Trippier, midfielders Joelinton, Guimarães, Tonali, and forwards Gordon, Isak, Almirón, and Tonali, who is this year's first player for Newcastle from the
AC Milan (football club)
A new backrower has been bought and many are waiting to see what changes he can bring when he joins Newcastle.
Aston Villa played 4231, with Mings, Konsa, Cash, Digne, Kamara, Luiz, MoussaDiaby, Bailey, McGinn, Watkins, MoussaDiaby is Villa's newest acquisition from Leverkusen, and was placed in the attacking midfield. MoussaDiaby
(Pre-emptive link)
Newcastle looked strong at home from the start, Gordon quickly made several breakthroughs on the left flank, Villa also wanted to play counterattack to push Newcastle back, but obviously couldn't hold Newcastle back, and the result was that in 6 minutes, Joelinton in the middle of the siege to the left side of the ball again, and Gordon hard to catch up with the ball in the middle of the cross, as there had been a long-distance shot, Villa's defense a little bit of a mess, and at this time, Tonali Tonali came straight in from outside the box and swept the ball home from 7 yards.
New signing Tonali broke through six minutes into his first game and then had a good chance, clearly in good form, but Villa were not to be outdone and quickly struck back, with Digne's cross from the left on 11 minutes, Watkins headed the ball back across the box and Moussa Diaby followed up with a shot from 12 yards into the top right corner.
MoussaDiaby was also quick to show his specialties, slotting in and finding openings very well, and his first touch was excellent!
Then on 15 minutes Newcastle went ahead again, Tonali received a free kick from 37 yards out and crossed it in front of Burns, who slid in and flicked the ball into the middle of the area, Isak was on hand to follow up with a goal, the whole thing was a one-two punch, and Tonali's pass was sharp.
Both teams had good attacking power and were about to start playing against each other, but Mings was injured in a ball grabbing match with Isak in the 24th minute, and was unable to get up for 5 minutes, and was finally taken off the field on a stretcher, and was replaced by PauTorres, who was examined after the match and found to have a knee injury that was quite serious and would be out of action for a few months.
As the game went on, Newcastle got better and better, the biggest difference between them and Villa was Tonali, Tonali was getting more and more active, constantly moving upfield to receive the ball, if he went over to receive the ball, it was almost never dropped and would always be passed, constantly creating good chances, Tonali often had to get back to defend and grab the ball when he was at Milan, now he was only responsible for the attacking forward passes and cuts, which obviously made him very free and difficult to stop. He's very free and hard to stop.
Late in the first half, Newcastle hit the Villa side, Villa goalkeeper Martinez couldn't clear the ball and had to be fouled, while Newcastle's Gordon on the left flank was in excellent form and directly blew away Villa's right back Cash who was not in good form, and has been completing breakthroughs and passes on the left side of the road.
At the start of the second half Villa replaced Bailey with Tielemans, who had been transferred from Leicester City, and had to tighten up their midfield control or the game would be a total loss.
