Aston Villa take on Newcastle United away at St. James’ Park this weekend in the final match before the Unai Emery era gets underway. Announced as Villa’s new manager earlier in the week, Emery will take charge from November 1 - but first, interim head coach Aaron Danks will lead on Tyneside.
With a dominant 4-0 victory over Brentford in their last outing, the Villans bounced back and looked an entirely different side last weekend. Steven Gerrard’s last few games in the dugout were far from inspiring - especially in his final act as Fulham swept his side away by three goals to nil.
Now though, Villa will be keen to build as good a platform as possible for their new manager - with a win good enough to push up toward the top half. It won’t be easy, however, as Newcastle are enjoying a fine spell of form with four wins in their last five matches.
Only table-toppers Arsenal can match the Magpies in this period, with Eddie Howe’s side hitting new heights. Sitting in the top four, Newcastle have only lost one game all season - and this was away at Anfield, arguably the most challenging place to visit in the entire division.
Villa will have to be at their absolute best while finding momentum from their glory against Brentford, otherwise, it may be very tough to take any points home. With this in mind, we’ve predicted what the Villans’ starting eleven may look like as they face the Toon. Here’s what we came up with - in a 4-2-3-1 formation.