For the first time in 2024, Aston Villa will play at home after several away trips in the Premier League and the FA Cup.
The previous calendar year served the team so well, including a stellar home record, which saw the team record a club-record 15 home wins on the bounce.
One of those matches included dispatching Newcastle United 3-0 last season, a game which Eddie Howe thinks proves how much of a ‘difficult place’ Villa Park is to go, as he told his pre-match press conference.
The Newcastle boss also spoke about the Aston Villa fans and how they are ‘very good’ for the team. He doesn’t expect that to change for Tuesday night’s trip.
The opening day fixture between these two seems a long time ago now because Unai Emery watched his players rightfully get dispatched 5-1.
But fast forward to the present and fourth-placed Aston Villa are remarkably 14 points clear of tenth-placed Newcastle.
Despite that huge gap, this game can’t be taken lightly because there is quality all through Newcastle’s XI, but given that it’s a game under the lights at Villa Park, then expect the crowd to play its part again.
Aston Villa fans
“Trying to make sure now we are prepared as we can be for Aston Villa, this is going to be a really, really difficult game,” said Howe. “They are in really good form, so we have to, tactically, get our game plan right.
On being well-beaten at VP last season and the toughness of it: “We felt in that game we didn’t perform to the levels we had done for the majority of the season. It was probably a low point for us. I thought Aston Villa played well on the day. We, for whatever reason, weren’t quite there.
“I think it highlights for us and the players just how difficult a place it is to go. I think the intensity they played on that day was high. The crowd were very good for them, so I don’t expect any of those things to have changed. I think it’s up to us to respond.
“We have played them twice since then. One in a pre-season friendly and the first league game of the season, so I don’t think there will be any surprises, but they are a very good team and Unai has done a great job.”
Staying in the Premier League title race
The longer the team can stay in the title race, the more chance of Champions League football being secured at the end of the campaign.
That was the aim at the start of the season, to get into the top four, but the team have gone above and beyond the expectations.
It’s Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool who hold a five-point lead at the top, but they don’t play until Wednesday night, so this is the chance to reduce the gap and stay away from the chasing pack behind us.
Keep thinking of the title race, stay in touching distance, and if the team falter from that, no problem, because if Champions League football returns to the Midlands, then it would be quite unbelievable.
